Newsom's party

By David Crockett
In what was maybe the least surprising news story since that guy from ‘N Sync announced he was gay, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom seemed headed for an easy reelection, even with the sparse returns on election night, when he and his supporters gathered at the Ferry Building.

“The best is yet to come,” Newsom told his followers, at the beginning and end of his speech, adding, “As great as we are, we can still be so much more.”

Newsom’s supporters wore green and orange buttons reading “Team Newsom 2007,” throughout the evening. Incidentally, green and orange were Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign colors during his reelection campaign in 2006, perhaps reflecting the colors’ moderate, sanitized tone.

If providing supporters an open bar and delectable desserts were the sole criteria for winning votes, then Newsom won mine. My favorite desserts were the bite-sized lemon meringue pies and these chocolate-coated things on a stick, which were delicious. Newsom drew a fairly diverse group of fans, though there were, obviously, a great deal of yuppies and old white men in fancy suits in attendance as well.

During the party, a constant diet of pop songs, such as U2’s “Beautiful Day,” and Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” boomed through the speakers.

Speaking to his audience with his usual raspy voice, Newsom thanked his campaign staff, his family, the politicians who supported his run, and even his opponents in the mayoral race. He quoted the Greek philosopher Pericles at one point, saying: “We do not imitate, for we are a model for others.” He, among other things, trumpeted San Francisco’s diversity and its commitment to the environment.

Newsom stressed that his campaign “moved away from the politics of polarization,” and confidently declared, “the San Francisco voters vindicated us, that we are moving in the right direction.”

Comments (1)

somawally

Dear San Francisco Bay Guardian Editor,

I’m a bit curious, if four years ago, 119,323 San Franciscans came out “on a rainy day in December,” to quote Supervisor Chris Daly from his blog, and voted for Supervisor Matt Gonzalez in his run-off against Supervisor Gavin Newsom, what happened to these people yesterday?

An anticipated low turn-out would have been an excellent opportunity to unseat an incumbent mayor. Plus, this was the first year we had rank-choice voting for Mayor that the Green Party fought tooth-and-nail for. Rank-choice voting was supposed to increase voter turn out and give the little guy a chance.

Add up just the number of people who voted for Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi the last time they ran and ask yourself where that number appears in the election result tables. Why didn’t these same, exact Progressives vote for Quintin Mecke? Was his platform all that different? Regardless of how much money Newsom’s campaign spent, these voters were well aware of Quintin Mecke. His name was on the ballot along with all the others.

Besides rank-choice voting, you can now sign up for permanent absentee voting in which the ballot in sent right to your home. So all you have to do is take out a black-ink pen, connect the arrow feathers to the arrowhead and mail in your vote. How difficult is that? Are pens now too heavy to lift?

When is Progressive voter apathy justified?

Brian Wallace

San Francisco

Posted by somawally | November 7, 2007 10:30 PM

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