The point is not that the Democrats are "in collusion with the Republicans" but that the Democratic Party establishment's chief concern is that "a third party in conjunction with a strong mass movement would challenge the two-party duopoly," shown by the fact that the Democratic Party establishment did much more to defeat Green Matt Gonzalez (who was supported by a large number of progressive rank-and-file Democratic voters and even progressive local Democratic officials like District 9 Supervisor Tom Ammiano) in the SF mayoral election than Republican candidates in other local elections.
>[lbo-talk] More news from the retreat from Mosconia
>John Adams jadams01 at sprynet.com, Mon Apr 5 05:40:50 PDT 2004
<snip>
>"People are always more energized by individuals than by issues ...
>but it's a strategy that can't sustain itself.''
>
>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/05/PROGRESSIVE.TMP
>S.F. leftists warily ask if Newsom is for real
>His progressivism, Gonzalez's exit leave them adrift
>John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
>Monday, April 5, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle
<snip>
>Despite their problems, San Francisco progressives aren't ready to
>concede the field to Newsom. The mayor angered Supervisor Chris Daly
>and tenant activists by vetoing legislation last month that would
>have banned demolition of large apartment buildings. He supported
>Proposition J, which would have eased the way for construction of
>housing aimed at families making more than $100,000 a year. And
>faced with the need to close a $350 million budget deficit, Newsom
>is going to have to make choices likely to anger people all over the
>city.
>
>"It's hard to see how you pull off those hard decisions without
>making someone mad,'' Binder said.
>
>"We appreciate all the attention he's paying to our neighborhood,
>but it has to have some substance,'' said Willie Ratcliff, publisher
>of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a Gonzalez supporter.
>"That's the measuring stick out here.''
>
>Some of Gonzalez's backers also have started the Progressive Voter
>Project, designed to sign up voters on the left for the permanent
>absentee ballots that Newsom's campaign used so effectively last
>year. By working art openings, political talks and anti-war rallies,
>the group already has collected 2,000 absentee applications, said
>activist Richard Marquez, and hopes to have 15,000 for the
>supervisors' elections in November.
>
>Grassroots efforts like that are part of the day-to-day task of
>doing what needs to be done to build a political movement, with or
>without a highly visible leader, [Ross] Mirkarimi said.
>
>"These are things we should have been doing for years,'' he added.
>"Politics is a long-distance race, and we have to keep looking
>ahead.''
The Progressive Voter Project <http://www.progressivevoterproject.com/> sounds like just the right project for the Green Party and other Gonzalez supporters to adopt, in order to win even without any charismatic candidates:
***** Lesson Learned Beaten in the mayor's election, S.F. lefties vow to sign up absentee voters for future campaigns BY LESSLEY ANDERSON, lessley.anderson at sfweekly.com
. . . Soon after the election, [Boris] Delepine and three other full-time Gonzalez volunteers -- John Radogno, Richard Marquez, and Bruce Wolfe -- set to work. They plunked down an undisclosed amount of personal funds, rented an office in the Redstone Building on 16th and Mission streets, and, together with some volunteers and paid staffers, launched the Progressive Voter Project. Its mission is to sign up thousands of political progressives as permanent absentee voters.
Its basic tactic is old-fashioned pavement pounding. Each Saturday, PVP workers stand on the corner of 16th and Mission, imploring working-class folk to sign up as permanent absentees. They go to progressive political events -- like Dennis Kucinich for President rallies -- and hit people up with the forms. A few weeks ago, Gonzalez and fellow Supervisor Jake McGoldrick -- both lefties who would benefit from more progressive absentee voters -- threw a party at a Richmond District club. The price of admission? To sign up as a permanent absentee voter. Since starting the drive a month ago, the PVP has already signed up 1,000 new absentee voters.
"We're going to expand our efforts ... shoot for 10 to 25,000 by the November elections," says Wolfe.
Building such a base has several advantages. By converting self-identified progressives like Gonzalez supporters and potential progressives such as blue-collar Latinos to permanent absentees, the PVP hopes to ensure higher Election Day turnouts by its constituency. One of the big problems for any campaign is getting people who would have voted for your issue or candidate to actually go to the polls. Time constraints and inclement weather historically decrease voter turnout. But local absentee voters are nearly twice as likely to actually cast their ballots, according to data from the last two mayoral runoffs.
"The theory is that if the ballot gets mailed to them, they're more likely to return their ballot," says Gonzalez, who remains president of the Board of Supervisors. "So the likelihood of maybe it will rain or you have to stay at work late -- the impact on voter turnout sort of disappears."
The PVP likes to point out to potential converts that, as an absentee voter, they can even vote in their pajamas if they want.
"It's really a no-brainer," says Vicki Leidner, who works for the Progressive Voter Project. "The return postage is even prepaid."
The benefits of having a large vote-in-your-jammies base were recognized early by Newsom's campaign. Months prior to the November general election, potential Newsom voters received absentee voter applications by mail, and a well-organized army of volunteers knocked on doors, signing up more people in traditionally less liberal areas like West of Twin Peaks.
"I remember being out in the field, a week after the general election, and the Newsom campaign was out there like a big, lean machine, ready to roll," says former Gonzalez volunteer Richard Marquez, a founding PVP member. "They were ready to go with thousands of prepackaged absentee ballots, going door to door."
According to the city Elections Department, prior to the November election, the Newsom campaign signed up 220 new absentee voters. Campaigners for Proposition M, Newsom's anti-panhandling initiative, signed up another 2,400 absentee voters. By contrast, Tom Ammiano's mayoral campaign signed up exactly seven new absentee voters before the November election. Gonzalez's signed up none.
Between the November election and the December runoff, Newsom's campaign signed up 2,325 more absentee voters. Another 1,565 signed up through Yes on M. And the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which endorsed Prop. M, signed up an additional 1,000 absentee voters.
Gonzalez's unimpressive showing in absentee voter sign-ups reflected his relative lack of funding, PVP organizers say. Mailing out absentee applications requires postage, and that's expensive when the applications number in the tens of thousands. Signing up absentees also takes manpower and good organization. While the art- and poetry-loving supervisor's campaign overflowed with high-energy volunteers, especially in its last weeks, it was no match for Newsom's.
"Every time a [progressive] campaign starts up, it seems like they're busy trying to start from scratch," says Marquez. The Gonzalez campaign didn't have the resources to send out any mailings until the third week in November -- only two weeks before the runoff.
For PVP members, the lesson of the mayor's race was that not signing up enough absentee voters can spell political doom. Though "Matt for Mayor" signs and cheering volunteers popped up on numerous street corners on Election Day, a silent constituency had already chosen a new mayor -- Newsom -- from the comfort of its members' living rooms.
"Optimism is a good thing, but there were false hopes [on the part of Gonzalez campaigners] that we could win without doing the groundwork, voter by voter, [in a] hard-fought street war," says Marquez. Next time around, the PVP hopes to be ready with a powerful corps of voters who can give a decisive edge to their political hero -- quite possibly while lounging in their jammies.
sfweekly.com | originally published: March 3, 2004
<http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2004-03-03/bayview.html/1/index.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>