NOTHING AFFECTS DOWNTOWN like money. The folks who pull the strings in the big-business world know they can win elections as long as money is the deciding factor – and as long as they have way more of it than the progressives. And in any kind of citywide election, money tends to be the deciding factor.

So I'm thinking that we need to start raising money – now – to stop the attack on district elections that seems more and more certain all the time.

If the allies of Mayor Gavin Newsom can't win a few more seats on the Board of Supervisors this fall – and since money doesn't always determine district races, they may very well not – they're going to try to get rid of the progressive majority on the board by going back to citywide races. That would do it too: as we pointed out last week in an editorial, it's almost impossible for anyone to win a citywide seat with less than $250,000 – and that kind of money doesn't go to grassroots neighborhood-based candidates. It's highly unlikely that Sups. Chris Daly, Aaron Peskin, Jake McGoldrick, Sophie Maxwell, Gerardo Sandoval, or even Matt Gonzalez (back before he was so famous) could have been elected to the board in a citywide race.

This is, in other words, the single most important issue on the progressive political agenda. And if we wait until the attack is in full swing to start to respond, we're going to be in trouble.

As Sup. Aaron Peskin likes to point out, the folks downtown are shameless poll watchers. They monitor public opinion constantly and shape their political agenda on the basis of what they can sell, to whom, with what sort of message. And so far district elections remain popular enough that they know a repeal effort would be an uphill battle. But the public relations offensive is on – Newsom, in one of the more cynical moves of his administration, tried to link the Maxwell recall effort to district elections – and the minute the Committee on Jobs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the real estate interests think they have an opening, they'll move.

On the other hand, if they knew the progressives already had a sizable war chest to defend district elections, they might think twice about it.

It's not too early to set up a political operation, start holding fundraisers, and start accumulating cash.

Tim Redmond