IN A BREAKTHROUGH VICTORY for the Green Party, Matt Gonzalez became the first Green elected in the city of San Francisco, winning a seat on the powerful San Francisco Board of Supervisors. San Francisco became the largest U.S. city yet to elect a Green and Gonzalez became the first Latino Green elected in a major U.S. city.
Gonzalez swept to victory in a December run-off election by a 66.1% to 33.9% margin, despite being overwhelmingly outspent by his opponent, who was backed by San Francisco Democratic Mayor Willie Brown's legendary political machine, and who benefited from over $200,000 in soft money expenditures from San Francisco's development community.
With the election of Gonzalez, San Francisco overwhelmingly becomes the largest U.S. city to elect a Green (750,000), followed by Madison, WI (210,000), Hartford, CT (130,000), Salem, OR (130,000) and Berkeley, CA (110,000)..
Gonzalez's victory came in San Francisco's liberal 5th District, which stretches from the Western Addition and Haight-Asbury 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 mid-campaign in October, after having been a Democrat for many years. He attended a rally for Green U.S. Senate candidate Medea Benjamin and became focused on the differences between the progressive Greens and centrist Democrats. He then realized he was in the wrong party. In an editorial "Why I Turned Green" that he wrote for the progressive weekly The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Gonzalez addressed 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 presidential vote situation in Florida - "it's about the Supreme Court, stupid" and "doesn't this guy get that Nader may have caused Gore to lose in Florida." They included a photo of Gonzalez' opponent with Tipper Gore - as if being seen with Ms. Gore were an asset in liberal Haight Asbury.
ong-time San Francisco Green organizer Ross Mirkarimi responded with an op/ed of his own - "Who's afraid of the Greens?" - also in the Bay Guardian. The California coordinator for Nader 2000, Mirkarimi defended Gonzalez and attacked his opponent for instigating a fear campaign similar to that used against Nader in the waning days of the presidential campaign.
Ironically it was Mirkarimi who earlier in 2000 was thought to be the most likely San Francisco Green to win a Supervisorial seat. He had experience working in the District Attorney's office, had managed a successful DA campaign himself, and had worked on a variety of progressives issues and ballot initiatives in the Bay Area over the preceding 15 years. But Mirkarimi, a resident of the same district as Gonzalez, had decided earlier in the year to take a position with the Nader campaign, rather than run against Gonzalez and possibly split the progressive vote, so that neither of them made the run-off. Then Gonzalez re-registered Green anyway. The result was that the Greens got a seasoned campaign manager for Nader and a newly elected official at the same time.
The 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."
The mainstream San Francisco Examiner also endorsed Gonzalez, saying "his politics match those of his district: so far left he almost falls off the horizon. Nonetheless, he has a certain star quality combined with a supple intelligence and concern for the underdog. He'll judge things on their merits - and not as a reflection of someone else's political agenda."
Gonzalez's campaign energized San Francisco Greens who were also active in the Nader for President and Medea Benjamin for Senate campaigns, and drew Greens from around the state 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.
Gonzalez's victory was more than just a progressive victory. It suggests something very profound about progressive voters - that on the municipal level, they will vote for progressive Greens over centrist Democrats - even in Democratic strongholds. Whatever grudges Democrats may hold over the Nader candidacy, it doesn't appear to prevent them from voting Green on the municipal level.
It also does not seem to preventing more Democrats from converting to Green. Emboldened by Gonzalez's decision, San Francisco Board of Education member-elect Mark Sanchez that he too was going Green. "I'm a little disenchanted with the Democratic Party," Sanchez said. "It's not progressive enough, and I agree with the values of the Green Party."
Source: The Green Pages.
