IF HARRY BRITT had been elected to Congress in 1986, instead of Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco politics would be very different today. I remember sitting in his office at the Board of Supervisors and talking to him about it at the time. The congressional race, he said, was partially about the issues on which he and Pelosi differed. (He opposed making San Francisco the home port for the nuclear-armed battleship Missouri, a move that would have cost the city about $100 million for improvements to the Hunters Point Naval Base. Pelosi favored it. Fortunately, it never happened; the city would have spent the money, then the Pentagon would have closed the base and decommissioned the ship, and we'd have been out all that cash with nothing to show for it.)

But just as much as that, Britt said, the race was about Willie Brown, and the Brown-Burton machine, and who would control that congressional seat, a key position of political power in San Francisco. If Britt had won, the machine would have suffered a serious blow; Brown wouldn't have had the power he does (he might not even have become mayor). Britt would have endorsed and raised money for progressive candidates for supervisor and mayor.

That's one way of looking at the state assembly races in San Francisco, and it's not a bad way. Yeah, Britt and Mark Leno (who seem to be the leading contenders at this point) differ on some issues, and they agree on some issues – but the way they would use their clout back at home would be very different. Think about whom Leno endorsed in the last supervisorial races (almost all of the machine candidates). Look at the public defender's race – he's endorsed Kim Burton over Jeff Adachi.

The same analysis works in the Leland Yee-Dan Kelly race. Yee has never been a machine person (although he seems to have made a very nice peace with Brown of late), but the causes and candidates he would support would almost certainly be more conservative than Kelly's. And Yee would instantly be a serious candidate for mayor.

One of the biggest problems for the progressive movement in this city has been the inability to get real, antimachine, independent people elected to statewide and national office. That's one reason this March election is so crucial; we finally have a chance to break through.