in this issue

I RAN INTO Robert Haaland, longtime queer activist, tenant organizer, union organizer, and all-around political agitator at the Castro Street Fair on Sunday. He was handing out fliers at the Harvey Milk club booth, telling people to "veto the governor." His pitch: Now that Gov. Schwarzenegger has vetoed the same-sex-marriage bill, the queer community needs to organize in large numbers to get to the polls and defeat Schwarzenegger's fall ballot initiatives.

"I want to hear [Sen.] Dianne Feinstein admit after the election that same-sex-marriage supporters saved the Democratic Party," Haaland told me.

What a wonderful thought.

The challenge this fall is to make people realize they have to go to the polls. There are no big statewide or national offices at stake, and, as Matthew Hirsch reports on page 13, it's tough to get San Franciscans to realize how important the one big local race, for county assessor, really is. So turnout may be low – and that will help Schwarzenegger with a series of ballot initiatives that could dramatically change state politics. If his veto of Assemblyman Mark Leno's same-sex-marriage bill galvanized the queer community to get out and vote his proposals down, it would be a remarkable statement.

Haaland is organizing a "Don't Let Arnold Proposition You" training Saturday, Oct. 8, at 9:30 a.m., at the LGBT Community Center (see Alerts, page 14). Could be the start of something.

In other news: John Mecklin, the longtime editor of SF Weekly, left the paper last week. He has family in New Orleans, and is moving down there for a while to help out. It was during his last week that I learned from several normally reliable sources that the merger deal between Village Voice Media and New Times, which owns the Weekly, is slated to close Nov. 30. Sources say that the VVM folks are demanding a better deal from their end because New Times' numbers aren't looking so good – particularly in San Francisco, the East Bay, and Cleveland, places where New Times papers have real competition.

As I reported several weeks ago, the merger documents specifically state that the Weekly and East Bay Express, also owned by New Times, are hemorrhaging money, and that the merged company would have the right to sell, close, or consolidate those papers. John, you got out at the right time.

Tim Redmond tredmond@sfbg.com