The Alioto-Newsom mess

"Absolutely not. That's out of the question."

Angela Alioto, Bay Guardian endorsement interview, 9/18/03, responding to a question about whether she would ever consider endorsing Gavin Newsom

THE BIGGEST LOSER in former supervisor and mayoral candidate Angela Alioto's surprise endorsement of Gavin Newsom for mayor isn't Newsom's opponent, Matt Gonzalez. In fact, in many ways, Gonzalez comes out of the whole fiasco looking good. The real loser, we're sorry to say, is Alioto.

Let's remember: Alioto devoted much of her mayoral campaign (paid for with a good percentage of her personal fortune) to denouncing Newsom. Her campaign flyers attacked him as an insensitive lout who evicted old ladies. Her comments in debate after debate portrayed him as a tool of downtown interests who was criminalizing the homeless. Over and over and again, she told anyone who would listen that Newsom was the wrong person to lead San Francisco.

So why did she change her mind? Did Newsom suddenly soften some of his antihomeless stands? Did he come out in favor of public power? Did he disavow his connections to Mayor Willie Brown and the epic era of corruption that Brown oversaw?

No. He got some Democratic Party and union heavies to put the pressure on her, and he promised her some sort of job.

That's right: Angela Alioto, who has spent much of her career fighting patronage at city hall, says she endorsed a candidate who is completely opposed to much of her core ideology and anathema to the constituency she claims to represent, after he told her she could be a "vice mayor." And it's not even clear if that's an official title or if she would simply have some advisory role in his administration.

As Steven T. Jones reports on page 17, Alioto insists Newsom is going to give her significant authority over homelessness, public power, and city contract reform. But that's very hard to believe: anyone with any sense knows Newsom isn't going to let Alioto promote a real public power agenda, or interfere with his savage crackdown on the poorest people in San Francisco, or stop his political cronies (like Mills Corp., represented by his campaign consultant, Eric Jaye) from getting sweetheart city contracts.

If Newsom wins, and Alioto actually becomes a senior member of his administration, she'd quickly have to follow the boss's line – or she'd be fired, summarily. Either way, she'd be unable to do any good for the causes she cares about, and instead would almost certainly harm them.

In the worst-case scenario (which, sadly, is entirely possible), Newsom would use Alioto to pacify some of his opposition while he attempts to undermine key parts of the progressive agenda. He would love, for example, to have Alioto, with her public power credentials, out front on an energy plan that leaves Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in complete control of the city's electrical system.

But no matter what happens from here on, Alioto has squandered much of the good will and credibility she has built up over her political career with the progressive and independent community. She has embarrassed herself and damaged any hope she might have had of a credible political future in this town.

She had a chance show some real leadership here, to cement her future as a progressive presence and public institution in San Francisco. That's what Tom Ammiano did (to his immense credit): he endorsed Gonzalez Nov. 23 and showed he has the credentials and authority to remain a senior political statesman. Alioto blew it.

After all these years, and all the work Alioto has put in on so many tough, critical issues, that's just sad.

It's also, unfortunately, a clear sign of how Newsom is likely to run his administration – and it smacks of another era of sleazy Brown-style deal making. And it makes Newsom look like an incompetent fool.

We don't agree with any of Newsom's plans for handling the homeless problem. But that's his signature issue, the part of his platform he's made into the centerpiece of his campaign. And Alioto has not only been critical of Newsom's proposals – she's also been completely at odds with his stance for her entire political career. For Newsom to promise her a powerful post overseeing homeless policy smacks of pure political expediency and demonstrates Newsom's willingness to sell out anything, including his core principles, for electoral advantage.

Gonzalez comes out of all of this looking like a principled leader, above this whole sordid fray. And the Newsom-Alioto mess may provide a critical boost to his campaign in a race that's getting tighter every day.

It's still too bad Alioto walked away from an endorsement of Gonzalez. The two are in close agreement on many issues, particularly public power. An Alioto-Gonzalez alliance would have been natural (unlike the Alioto-Newsom deal, which is nothing but a very-strange-bedfellows arrangement of convenience that reflects badly on both sides).

It's not clear Gonzalez ever had a real chance at her endorsement – Alioto is deeply loyal to the Democratic Party, and she was under immense pressure from the party establishment, which fears the prospect of a Green Party member being at the helm of a major U.S. city. And Gonzalez clearly tried to work with her – she was close to endorsing him just last week, until some party and union bigwigs intervened. (That's particularly frustrating when local races in California are, by law and for good reason, nonpartisan contests, and when the Democrat in question, Newsom, acts far more like a know-nothing Republican and represents much of what even Alioto agrees is wrong with the Democratic Party.)

The Newsom campaign has thus far seemed to be a slick, well-oiled machine; this only-in-San-Francisco soap opera was the campaign's first big mistake. The Newsom camp clearly wanted to deny Gonzalez the momentum an Alioto endorsement would have brought him. Instead, by bungling the whole event and scrambling to clean up the aftermath, Newsom has given Gonzalez some ammunition just when he needed it most.

In the end, though, Gonzalez is the only one who comes out of this mess looking clean. And while the Newsom camp is going on the attack, throwing mud at Gonzalez's campaign staff and trying to wrongly suggest that the Bay Guardian opposes Gonzalez (see In This Issue, page 3), Gonzalez should keep doing what he does best: hammering away at the issues. This is a race between the old, corrupt, pro-downtown ways of the Brown administration and a new, independent, pro-neighborhood, progressive vision. The future of San Francisco is at stake. Alioto did herself some lasting damage, but Gonzalez can still win – as long as all his supporters, and all his potential supporters, get out to the polls Dec. 9 and vote.

P.S. The news media coverage has been, for the most part, straightforward and accurate – and unflattering to both Newsom and Alioto, who have nobody to blame for it but themselves.