March 18 2003

By Steven T. Jones

The top four San Francisco mayoral candidates faced off in their first campaign forum last week, and the event helped define the political personae they hope will win them the top job: Sup. Gavin Newsom as the heir apparent to a business-friendly administration, Sup. Tom Ammiano as the statesmanlike front-runner more palatable to progressives, Susan Leal as the efficient administrator, and Angela Alioto as the liberal firebrand with the passion and guts to kick corruption out of city hall.

Hosted by Senior Action Network on March 13 at the St. Mary's Cathedral Conference Center, the debate started off low-key, with all the candidates predictably vowing to be strong advocates for the most important issues to seniors: health care, affordable housing, social services, and transportation.

It was the political styles of the candidates that defined their differences.

Ammiano carried himself like the front-runner he hopes to be, after his last bid for the office surprised many political watchers by forcing a runoff election with Mayor Willie Brown. Ammiano made few bold declarations during the forum, preferring to tick off detailed policy points and general political philosophies and refraining from even veiled attacks on his opponents.

Later he told us, "I think the campaign has matured a lot, and that's where that confidence comes from."

In sharp contrast, Alioto came out swinging. After playing up her and her family's deep political roots in the city and her more recent success as an aggressive civil rights litigator, she was the first candidate to attack an opponent.

Her offensive began after Newsom, whose support from the business community is expected to make him the best-financed candidate, answered a question put to the candidates about what they'd do to bring about universal health care. He touted his support for a successful 1996 ballot measure that made health coverage for all residents an objective for the city.

"You just heard this was passed seven years ago," Alioto said into the microphone, gearing up one of several passionately progressive tirades that consistently won the biggest audience applause of the morning. "You have my promise that as mayor, there won't be a seven-year gap in providing universal health care."

She was just getting started. Throughout the morning her central theme was how a city government "full of waste and corruption" was squandering "millions and millions of dollars" on a political patronage system and on "studying projects that are never going to happen." Eventually, she worked her way up to the declaration "This is a world-class city that has gone into the dumps."

That was the bait Newsom finally bit. All morning he had played the pragmatic centrist to the progressive idealism of Alioto and Ammiano, saying, "We need to be innovative and entrepreneurial," and advocating "not pie-in-the-sky ideals but hard-headed, practical solutions."

After Alioto's "dumps" comment, Newsom acknowledged her crowd-pleasing style by noting that she's "always a hard act to follow," before taking issue with her comment: "I don't think we're in the dumps. I'm offended by that." Later, Newsom told us, in the same indignant tone, "I think the city is too important to bash for political purposes."

But Alioto seemed to enjoy clashing with the suave young entrepreneur turned politician, whose commercial ventures started with infusions of cash from billionaire family friend Gordon Getty. After the forum Alioto quipped to us, "It's easy to say the city's not in the dumps when you have dinner at the Gettys' place every night."

Leal, the city treasurer and a former supervisor, seemed to split the difference between the two positions: "I love the city, but I also have the financial skills to turn it around," she said. Like Ammiano, she took a low-key approach, emphasizing her ability to work with various constituent groups to help the city close its budget deficit and move forward with progressive programs.

The differing approaches of the two most liberal candidates, Ammiano and Alioto, could be based on differing calculations of whether instant-runoff voting will be in place by the fall election. Ammiano seems to be betting on IRV being ready, which would give his quietly confident campaign a boost from runner-up votes by progressives torn between him and Alioto. Alioto's fiery launch could be based on a calculation that she needs to claw her way into a runoff election without help from second-place votes. If IRV doesn't make it this year – because the system is still tied up in financial and political issues – Ammiano might need to take the gloves off, lest Alioto's passion be enough to lift her into a runoff battle with Newsom.

Throughout the questioning by Senior Action Network members, the group recorded the candidates' positions with markers on a large report card, a feature that seemed to elicit uniformly supportive positions among the candidates. But with the mayoral field now off and running, last week's clashes of style are bound to evolve into more significant clashes of substance. Stay tuned.