How Gonzalez won

IN THE END the numbers weren't quite there. Matt Gonzalez ran a stunning grassroots campaign, energized thousands of new voters and volunteers, did far better than most observers thought possible – and still fell a few percentage points short of winning the election.

But the progressives, independents, neighborhood activists, and countless others unhappy with the prospect of Mayor Gavin Newsom shouldn't be a bit depressed. This was a campaign for the ages, a major event in San Francisco history, and a big step in the battle to take back the city. Remember: Gonzalez – a member of the Green Party, which has just a small fraction of S.F.'s registered voters – was up against a $4 million campaign and the combined power of almost the entire state and local Democratic Party structure. And yet he did what he set out to do when he entered the race back in August: he denied Newsom a mandate.

Sure, there were problems with the Gonzalez effort, and in retrospect, there are plenty of things he could have done differently. An absentee-voter drive early on might have cut into Newsom's huge lead in that crucial arena. A few more seasoned campaign professionals on board might have helped channel some of the creative chaos. An honest analysis of what went right (a whole lot) and what went wrong (a few things) can only be helpful for future campaigns, and that's something Gonzalez and his top aides should be talking about.

But in all of those discussions, and in all of the Monday-morning quarterbacking, it's crucial that nobody forgets the central point: Gonzalez and his campaign team won a major victory here. As Tim Redmond reports on page 16, Newsom will take office with a majority of the Board of Supervisors opposed to his agenda – and a strong, visible, and active grassroots constituency poised to fight him. If the organizers and activists who turned the Gonzalez campaign into a mass movement for change can keep a significant number of the new and newly energized voters involved in local politics, it will not only be able to block Newsom's worst initiatives but also could advance the progressive agenda on every front.

And there will be plenty of work to do over the next 12 months. Newsom is trying to ram through his Workforce Housing Initiative (a developers' dream that fast-tracks new housing for relatively well-off people but does nothing to create real affordable housing) on the March ballot. He'll be talking about deep program cuts (instead of tax hikes) to make up for the huge and growing budget deficit. He and his allies will be targeting the progressive supervisors who are up for reelection next fall.

And there are already indications that the downtown forces are moving to abolish district elections altogether. Martha Bridegam, who puts out a "demisemiblog" (home.pacbell.net/mabjo/martha.html#226), reports receiving a call from a pollster who asked a series of questions about replacing the current district system with an at-large system, and indicated that a measure to do so might be on the ballot sometime next year.

The trick is to keep the Gonzalez army from falling apart now that the election is over. Progressive and neighborhood leaders across the city should be looking at the Newsom inauguration not as a time to retrench but as a chance to push the new mayor and new administration on a wide range of issues.

There ought to be a new public power move in 2004, and much of it can happen at the Board of Supervisors. The first step is for Sup. Chris Daly, who requested an opinion from City Attorney Dennis Herrera on legal options for pursuing the issue, to make sure that opinion gets written and issued and to make public as much of the analysis as possible. Then Gonzalez and his allies should introduce the most comprehensive public power and green energy plan possible, with the goal of replacing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. with a city-run utility before the next round of huge PG&E rate hikes kicks in (see "Scrap the PG&E Bailout," 12/10/03).

The final days of the mayor's race showed the need for some sweeping ethics reforms. Among the most pressing: new disclosure rules for independent political action committees (see dev/sfbg.com/election) and an increase in the staffing and investigative and enforcement authority of the Ethics Commission. The $91 million cut San Francisco is facing from the Schwarzenegger administration's reduction in vehicle-license fees almost mandates that the city take a look at major new revenue sources. And since Newsom has made homelessness a huge issue, the board could take this opportunity to push a progressive homeless plan (including a means to pay for it).

The list goes on and on: tenant rights, environmental issues, affordable housing, neighborhood rezoning, transportation ... Newsom shouldn't be allowed to take the lead on and define the crucial battles of the next four years.

On a larger, political level, there's a crying need in San Francisco for some form of community-based political organization that can serve as a forum for progressive debate, a training ground for organizers and activists, and a center for political action between campaigns. The grassroots, bottom-up model of the Gonzalez campaign suggests a local version of an Internet-based group like MoveOn.org might make sense. Activist Marc Tognotti, who worked with the public power campaigns, is pushing for a series of neighborhood assemblies, with a clear and well-defined advisory role at City Hall; that's an idea that has some merit.

There are all sorts of other ways to keep this movement alive. The most important one is the message we began putting out on election night, at sfbg.com: Don't get depressed. Don't give up. The progressive movement is alive and growing in San Francisco, and we saw the clearest possible evidence of that on election night.

P.S. A tip of the hat and a special award for valor to the Democrats who stood up to the party and backed Gonzalez, starting with Sups. Tom Ammiano, Aaron Peskin, Jake McGoldrick, Gerardo Sandoval, and Chris Daly. And a special place in the hall of shame for Assemblymember Mark Leno, former supervisor Angela Alioto, and all the other Democrats who like to call themselves progressives or liberals but who signed on with Newsom, a Democrat who acts like a Republican. P.P.S. Another great issue to throw at Newsom: On Dec. 11, residents of his own district showed up early in the morning on Filbert Street to attempt to block construction of a 24-megawatt PG&E power line meant to serve George Lucas's new Presidio office (see "Fight the Power," page 13). The Board of Supervisors should hold hearings on this, smoke out Newsom's real stand on PG&E and the Presidio, and hand a great campaign platform to anyone who wants to challenge Newsom's appointee to the District Two seat next fall. P.P.S. Newsom's choice of former city attorney Louise Renne – who ran her office like a wholly owned subsidiary of PG&E – for transition-team chief is a very bad sign.