As the left turns

SUP. MATT Gonzalez took over as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Jan. 8, marking a power shift among the city's left as Sup. Tom Ammiano steps down to focus on his mayoral bid. We caught up with Gonzalez to talk about what's next for progressives in a painful budget year.

BG: What challenges does your win – over two more-centrist candidates – present for progressives in San Francisco?

MG: Tom leaving the board presidency and being replaced with somebody in the middle – or even just less to the left of him than I am – would have meant that with any successes of that board president, people would have said, "Aha, you see those lefties can't go." The left has another chance to regroup and figure out if we can reappropriate the [issues] that belong to us that somehow got into everybody else's hands.

BG: How can the progressive supervisors challenge the notion that the left can't govern?

MG: When I go to a neighborhood meeting, my constituents are very impressed when they see me concerned about local district issues. They say, "Oh, I thought all you guys did was fight over international resolutions." They do want us to be progressive on social issues and on national issues of concern. They just don't want us focused on that first.

BG: In the future when you look back at your tenure as board president, how do you want to be remembered?

MG: I would like to see the supervisors that share my political values highly esteemed in the public eye: [Sup. Gerardo] Sandoval, [Sup. Chris] Daly, [Sup. Aaron] Peskin, [Sup. Jake] McGoldrick. They are good legislators. They care about people, and that's why they got into government.

On issues, I am most concerned about raising the minimum wage. Prop. N [Care Not Cash] just passed. That was nearly a supermajority of people saying they want certain things for the poor. Well, they should also want a decent wage – $6.75 an hour is not cutting it.

BG: You didn't mention Tom Ammiano. Why is that?

MG: I like Tom. I believe he has good values. Probably, I liked him more before I was on the Board of Supervisors. We've had differences that naturally arise in politics. Was I hurt that he voted for someone else [for board president]? Yes. Was I hurt that he did it twice? Sure I was. But it just shows that there is not quite this Ammiano political machine that people have subscribed to for so long. When I speak well of Tom, I genuinely mean it. Do I think he can win the mayoral post? Yes.

BG: You face a year of tough decisions with an expected $300 million shortage in the city budget. What can the board do to protect important social services?

MG: What I think we are going to see is the mayor's people encouraging the board to find different ways to increase fees and pass taxes. The progressives need to be prepared to articulate that we wouldn't have to be doing this if Prop. L [the fall ballot measure that would have raised the real-estate transfer tax] had passed and that the mayor's community [his downtown business allies] is the one who went out and spent all that money trying to defeat it.

BG: After the loss of public power Proposition D this fall, what's the next step toward getting a public energy system for San Francisco?

MG: Public power loses in this town for one reason: we don't have the money to campaign. We need to raise money now in anticipation of a new ballot measure in the future. But it is also not just an issue of public power but one of public trust. I think that the public doesn't trust that the progressive supervisors can deliver on public power.

BG: One of the major roadblocks for Prop. D was the fact that there was no city-funded study showing what public power could do for San Francisco. Will the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission, which you sit on, fund a complete study?

MG: We have the money to do it. But there may be certain members of LAFCO that have individual issues that they are interested in exploring. Nobody has said to me that they are not going to be supportive [of funding a public power feasibility study], but I don't sense that we are of one mind.

BG: You are now among the most prominent and powerful Green Party members in the state, or even the country. What's next for the Greens?

MG: It would be great to win a second district for the Board of Supervisors. District Nine [Ammiano's] is ripe to be a Green seat. We will continue to run candidates for the Community College Board and the school board. Precinct work is at the heart of party building. People don't realize how significant the little obscure races can be.

BG: The whiteness of the left, and of the Greens in particular, is a problem. How can you attract a more diverse constituency?

MG: We need to reach out. We have to work on issues that people relate to. Also, we have to break through the generational phenomenon. Often people will stick to a political party even if they are unhappy with it, simply because of tradition.