Greens Win Historic Board of Supervisor Seat in San Francisco
by
Mike Feinstein
December 13, 2000
IN
a breakthrough victory for the Green Party, Matt
Gonzalez (photo) became the first Green elected to the San
Francisco Board of Supervisors, winning a run-off election Tuesday
night.
Gonzalez swept to victory by a 66.1% to 33.9% margin, despite being
overwhelmingly outspent by his opponent Juanita Owens. Owens was
backed by San Francisco Democratic Mayor Willie Brown's political
machine and received over $200,000 in soft money expenditures from the
San Francisco development community.
With the election of Gonzalez, San
Francisco becomes the largest U.S. city to elect a Green (750,000),
followed by Madison, WI (210,000), Hartford, CT (130,000) and
Berkeley, CA (110,000).
Gonzalez's victory comes in San
Francisco's liberal 5th District, which stretches from the Western
Addition and Haight-Ashbury to Japantown, and which contains many
young, politically active voters, renters and a significant poor black
population
A public defender and affordable
housing advocate, Gonzalez joined the Green Party in October, after
having been a Democrat for many years. He wrote an editorial
"Why
I Turned Green" for the San
Francisco Bay Guardian, on why he changed parties, and
addressing whether his switch would hurt his chances in a district
with 33,519 Democrats and 2,735 Greens.
"The Democratic Party in San
Francisco includes sanctioned Democratic clubs that engage in massive
soft-money campaigns against good progressive candidates. What do I
have in common with these clubs and the tactics they employ? I
don't have much in common with them at all. So I joined the Green
Party. I decided I am not going to vote for candidates who support the
death penalty or oppose gay marriage. I'm not going to vote for
candidates who oppose campaign-finance reform or value the corporation
over the individual. Nor will I give the local machine party any
legitimacy by remaining a part of it"
Some urged Gonzalez to wait to change
parties until after the election. In his editorial, Gonzalez
responded. "Why should I wait? Shouldn't the voters in
District Five have the opportunity to vote against me because I'm
Green? And what kind of impression would I be making on folks whom I'm
asking to trust me if I can't even be honest about my own party
affiliation?"
The local Democratic Party attacked
Gonzalez with an ill conceived direct mail campaign attempting to
associate Gonzalez with the situation in Florida, saying "its
about the Supreme Court, stupid" and "doesn't this guy get
that Nader may have caused Gore to lose in Florida", along
with a photo of Owens together with Tipper Gore - as if being
seen with Tipper Gore were an assest in liberal Haight Ashbury.
The
San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsed Gonzalez, saying:
"his positions on the district's most pressing issues -
gentrification, homelessness, tenants' rights - are solidly
progressive and particularly well reasoned. A highly regarded lawyer,
he's fluent in policy matters but never loses sight of the human
consequences of political decisions. And he has brought a unique and
thoughtful style to the stump, treating campaign events and debates
not as occasions for sloganeering but as opportunities for
discussion. He'd be an open, accountable, and engaged
member of the board."
Gonzalez's campaign energized
San Francisco Greens who were also active in the Nader for President
and Medea Benjamin for US Senate Green Party campaigns, and drew
Greens from around the state to come to San Francisco to work for
Gonzalez as well. Gonzalez and his volunteers walked the
entire district, visiting almost every residence at least once, and
ran an effective 'get out the vote' operation on election day.
With the election of Gonzalez,
California Greens won 13 races in 2000 . There are now 31 California
Greens holding elected office, including 19 city council
members (http://www.gp.org/patience.html).
In Sebastopol in November, Greens won two seats to form the
second-ever Green city council majority in the U.S. Three
new Green mayors have also been appointed since November - Larry
Robinson (Sebastopol), Tim Fitzmaurice (Santa Cruz) and Mike Feinstein
(Santa Monica). Santa Monica is the largest U.S. city to have a
Green mayor. Nationally Greens won 32 races in 2000 and have 76
Greens holding elected office in 19 states.
Matt
Gonzalez's Campaign Website
Green Party Election
Results
San
Francisco Bay Guardian Endorsement of Matt Gonzalez
12.13.00
