Fighting on all fronts

THERE ARE 20 ballot measures facing San Francisco voters this fall, some of them critically important. The long ballot is in part the result of politics (Sup. Gavin Newsom really wanted his anti-homeless measure, Proposition N, on the ballot to boost his mayoral ambitions; Sup. Tom Ammiano quickly responded with his own ballot measure, Proposition O, which would take much of the bite out of Newsom's). It's in part the result of state law: a measure to increase the tax on sales of real estate worth more than $1 million must go before the voters because it's a tax increase, and thanks to a right-wing state ballot initiative that passed several years ago, all tax increases have to go before the voters.

It's also in part the result of a progressive board of supervisors moving forward to make changes in the City Charter – creating a public power agency, for example, and creating a new entertainment commission that would take permitting authority out of the hands of the police.

And in fact, among the alphabet soup of measures are several that would profoundly change city policy on energy, housing, homelessness – and ultimately alter the demographic makeup of San Francisco.

But with so much on the ballot, it's likely that a lot of voters will be confused, and some crucial issues could be lost in the shuffle. To make things worse, progressives – who are fighting to pass several measures and to kill several others, as well as pushing candidates for supervisor in several districts – are desperately short of money. That's partially because of the recession, partially because labor, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on losing campaigns in the past two years, is pulling back a bit, and partially because progressives in this town have never been very good at raising money in the first place.

But it creates a real political emergency – and only a concerted effort by a wide range of activist groups can prevent the November elections from becoming a disaster.

• • •

The way Sup. Aaron Peskin described the situation to us the other day, the progressive, pro-neighborhood, reform movement in this town is poised on the edge of greatness – and on the edge of failure. The dot-com-era fight against the economic cleansing of San Francisco and the Ammiano write-in mayoral campaign galvanized local activists in a way we hadn't seen in years, and that energy translated into a smashing victory over the Brown-Burton machine in the 2000 supervisorial races. A year later a comprehensive public power measure came within 500 votes of passage, despite a multimillion-dollar campaign against the plan by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and its allies.

But the machine and downtown aren't sitting around wallowing in defeat. The power structure has been organizing, preparing, and raising money, and its darlings, including supervisor and mayoral candidate Gavin Newsom, are preparing a sweeping counterassault. Among the key elements of the downtown strategy: Defeat enough progressive supervisors to give Mayor Brown the ability to sustain vetoes (targets: Sup. Chris Daly and progressive candidates in Districts Four and Eight). Boost Newsom's mayoral hopes with a cruel attack on the homeless masquerading as a solution to one of the city's most visible and difficult problems. Crush public power and progressive taxes. Pass a bill (Proposition R) that will, over the coming years, eliminate much of the low-cost rental housing in the city and bring in a wealthier, more conservative electorate.

Ultimately, the downtown forces want to eliminate district elections – and defeating much of the board's agenda this fall would make the pro-district elections progressives appear weak and powerless.

It's safe to assume that, in the war councils of the downtown groups, the fall campaigns are being discussed together, as part of a comprehensive strategy. The reform forces need to do the same.

• • •

At least a half-dozen of the fall measures have strong (and largely united) progressive constituencies fighting for their passage (or defeat). The ones that have the highest stakes are probably Proposition D (public power), Proposition L (transfer-tax hike), Prop. N (attack on the homeless), Prop. O (softening that attack), and Prop. R (condo conversions). Proposition B (affordable housing bonds), Proposition F (entertainment commission), and Proposition I (parental leave for city employees) also have strong and active supporters. Add in the races for supervisor, and there's the potential for, at minimum, 10 campaigns that right now are working largely on their own issues to come together in a concerted effort to win a wide-ranging victory this fall.

There were elements of that approach at work in the last supervisorial races, when many of the reform candidates shared money, volunteers, and strategic ideas. Since then, a few stalwart community activists (including Eileen Hansen, candidate for supervisor in District Eight) have worked to build a group called the Progressive Agenda – a sort of clearinghouse for reform-oriented political work. The progressive district supervisors should pick up on that effort and provide the leadership and resources to expand it into a large, visible coalition that can take on downtown this fall – and in the future.

It won't be easy or painless – these things never are. Some candidates for supervisor will refuse to participate if their opponents are also involved. Some people and groups on the left just can't get along, no matter what the cause. But overall, most of progressive San Francisco right now wants to pass the public power plan (Yes on D!), pass the real-estate transfer tax (Yes on L!), pass affordable housing bonds (Yes on B!), defeat Newsom's awful homeless measure (No on N!), and defeat Hall's awful condo-conversion proposal (No on R!). That could be the nexus of a powerful coalition.

Instead of trying to raise money individually, the campaigns could do joint fundraisers, put out joint literature, and generally combine forces in a joint effort to get out the vote. Advocates for the homeless, social justice, public power, neighborhoods, small businesses, environmental justice, tenants, and labor would present a broad, hard-to-defeat coalition.

If that worked, it could provide the model and the framework for the sort of larger progressive coalition this city has needed for years. All that's missing right now is the initiative. Sups. Ammiano, Daly, Matt Gonzalez, Jake McGoldrick, and Peskin all have important issues at stake in November. So do a half-dozen campaign managers. Who's going to pick up the phone and call a meeting?