Democrats running scared (of Matt Gonzalez)
[Yah, baby… Matt G. has got it going on! -Thomas]
“Why Democrats Must Stop S.F.’s Green Machine”
Posted by Arthur Bruzzone
Friday, November 21, 2003
‘’Progressives'’ are having a parade in San Francisco. In this case, it’s a parade of green progressives. A young progressive Green Party candidate has beaten back a flock of traditional Democrats and earned the right to take on the leading moderate Democrat candidate on December 9. It may be a preview of things to come.
Ten years ago, San Francisco’s mayoral contest preempted a major leadership change in major American cities.
In the early nineties, black mayors governed most America’s major cities–liberal mainstream African-American mayors. Then in 1991 in San Francisco a former police chief, Frank Jordan battled a blue blood liberal incumbent Mayor Art Agnos. Although without an ‘’R'’ next tp his name, a DINO, or Democrat in Name Only, Jordan took a hard-line on homelessness. He was pro-business, and he advocated aggressive police presence in the neighborhoods. He won.
In the years following Jordan’s victory, more conservative mayors assumed power in America’s major cities–including Giuliani in New York, Riordan in Los Angeles, and Daly in Chicago.
Now, two thirty-somethings–Green Party candidate, Matt Gonzalez, and Gavin Newsom–will face-off in the mayoral runoff. Both are straight, both have adoring female groupies, both are members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, and both have active, but subdued, star quality. In other words, it’s an even match and an ideal face-off. The traditional coalition power of the Democrat Party is pitted against the more glitzy, youth-oriented glamour of the Green Party. Gonzalez was until recently a Democrat, and he is a stand-in for presidential candidate Howard Dean.
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