Watching City Hall #197, JULY 14, 2003 “Everyone hold onto your crystal balls til next week.” (Barbara Taylor, signs off ‘City Desk’ – channel #23) We got em firmly in hand, Barbara. Sounds like good advice too. The real political icebergs are starting to break up in the July sun and a person could easily sustain serious injury if they got their little row boat in front of one of those big muthas. Speaking of which. … Senor Newsom’s Pistoleros threaten supes Remember how Al Capone used to go to Miami and hang out with the Mayor when a big hit was ready to go down in Chicago? … Getty front-boy, Gavin Newsom did pretty much the same thing last week. Only, he went to Mexico. (Wonder if he got to see that ‘lady and the donkey’ show they did in TJ when I was a sailor?) … Yeah, using his ‘South of da border’ excursion as an excuse to again be a no-show at an expedited hearing on his ‘Care-Not’ legislation … the ‘Noose’ blew off the Board of Supervisors (you want gridlock between the Mayor and the Board – elect this guy) … naw, Gavin, he like, says … like he knows he had thousands of people call the Board so’s his ‘Care-Not’ would get the earliest possible hearings … he did that, but when the Board accommodated him … he refused to come halfway and, at least show up? … to the hearings. Newsom’s contempt for the Board is palpable. You know why you can’t really blame the guy? You can’t really blame the guy because … Because, even Chris Daly regularly kicks Gavin’s ass in debate at the Board now … Gavin never was a match for Ammiano … certainly not for Gonzalez … Peskin mops up the floor with Newsom like he’s the rag end of a mop … Hall? – worst case of all for Newsom – cause Hall, is what Newsom pretends to be … you know … fiscal conservative, law and order but with a heart, family man, a real General … next to Newsom’s ‘Eagle Scout – with – a secret’ smirk. Newsom’s only conservative when it comes to money for the poor or for the insane. ‘Conservative’? Newsom lives a life of conspicuous consumption that rivals that of any 3rd world monarch. This boy ain’t no ‘man of the people’ … unless your name is Gordon (‘my other wife is a Volvo’) Getty. … Adriel Hampton strikes nerve … Examiner’s City Editor scores big Yesterday was Examiner City Editor, Adriel Hampton’s 25th birthday. Twenty … FIVE??!! … Only in San Francisco could an enormous talent such as Adriel’s have the opportunity to use and expand their every skill. The recent decimation of the Examiner’s staff (the Hearsts are cheering) … the Examiner’s contraction put lots of really top people on the street. From the ever-acerbic, Frank Gallagher to the ever-connected broad stroke daily City murals of P.J. Corkery … to the best political cartoonist in town (that would be Tom Borromeo) … Hmmmm. … where did all of that come from? … I get misty when I see publications going down before the mono-view of big money. Anyway, amidst the carnage of the Examiner, a few opportunities opened and young Adriel grabbed one and ran with it. Behind the banner of his own ‘Body Politic’ grab bag, Hampton wrote the best column of the season vis a vis the race for Mayor and you need to read it. The Body Politic (by Adriel Hampton) (S.F. Examiner) (Friday-Sunday, July 11-13th, 2003) “You guys want a person you can control, you don’t want a leader.” (District 7 Supe, Tony Hall) “ The jealousy is obvious. It pours through the TV screen.” “Matt (referring to 5th District Supe, Matt Gonzalez) is taking the most conservative member of the board and using him” (referring to Tony Hall) (John Shanley, Newsom mouthpiece) Hampton’s piece is the best of the season because he was able to get to the kernel of the major issue in the coming November vote for our new Mayor. … This is a battle between the Board of Supervisors, who represent the electorate not only as a whole, but up close and personal on a District basis. Newsom has stated in public repeatedly that he does not favor District representation. ‘Body Politic’ describes the true scene, with the jet-set Newsom partying in Mexico while his glamorous bride makes the rounds of the talk shows and the Getty financed political flaks attack the supes who stayed behind to do the people’s work. What a pack of pitt bulls! … Jack Davis … John Shanley … Nathan Nayman … Jim Chappell … O.J. Simpson … you get the idea. Hey, it’s some fight. Imagine beating this gang of bastards! Newsom has literally hundreds of people on his payroll, plus the power of the Brown/Burton machine, which has thousands more actually working for the City. The Supes field themselves, plus 2 assistants each. That’s (deducting Newsom & Dufty – who is only one of Gavin’s poodles) … that’s 30 people trying to fight around 3,000! If you think about it, it is understandable that some of the Board’s members have decided not to fight back. All they had to do was read Shanley’s comments on behalf of Newsom to see their imminent peril: “The Board … will be replaced!” Only Hall stood on his hind legs to repel the attack: “If Mr. Shanley is referring to Supervisor Gonzalez and I agreeing on the fact that Proposition N is a house of cards that is crumbling on its lies, deception and fuzzy math, he is correct.” (Tony Hall) Attack the Board! Divide and conquer! … Hit em with so much money they’ll smother in the ads. Hit em with Barbara Taylor. … Hit em with Ken Garcia … Hit em with Clear Channel signs and signals … Hit em with the remains of Warren Hinckle … How’s the Board doing? You’ve all seen those scenes in the old barbarian war movies where the individual chieftains meet on the hill and look out over the massive enemy forces and some of them chicken out and go home? … Same-o, same-o principle is at work in the Mayor’s race. Hall is already in the field alone (and kicking ass!) … Peskin appears to be suiting up for battle. … Ammiano has been out there for a year but is totally befuddled with his compass and rudder shot away, long ago … he’s out of ammo and it’s time he was quietly scuttled, removed to an ‘Old Soldier’s Home’ and his troops moved into other camps … Chris Daly? … I hate the boy’s land use views (as I do most of the Board’s) but, hot damn!, the youngster can swing a mean Irish club (couldn’t spell ‘sheleighlee’?) … I reviewed the meetings I missed on vacation and the newly re-elected Daly was doing what I’d hoped. … He was ever on the attack, forcing the Department of Human Services (Trent Rohrer only takes calls from the Chronicle now) … forcing DHS to face their numbers and demanding Newsom return and start acting like a father for his little Prop N. … Gonzalez? … Did someone say ‘Gonzalez’? … I don’t know, man. … I hope he’s been meeting with other people in caves under the City, carrying candles and planning in a secret language … If so, it’s a surprise to me. … Actually, it looks like he’s going to avoid the real conflict and spend his time pushing the Voter Initiative lead-pipe cinch minimum wage raise to $8.50. If so, it will be a serious loss to the left’s chances of stopping Newsom on the first ballot. At this point, I’m no longer saying I think Gonzalez can win (like many Hall rats, I don’t think he has the stomach for it anymore) … however, there are a few thousand people who would come out to vote for Gonzalez, who wouldn’t come to vote at all if he wasn’t running. … Same with volunteers. The left needs every resource and keeping his troops in the barracks will do more to damage Gonzo’s political future than bringing them out and losing. “The women are more dangerous than the men.” (bodyguard advises Michael Corleone about Sicilian women) I like Angela Alioto. She’s a Sicilian/American woman. … I just finished her book. She has a boyfriend. … She should be a new grandmother about now. … She’s fearless, aggressive and full of indignation, love and compassion. … Her book, ‘Straight to the Heart - Political Cantos’ (which I read over my holiday) shows her to have been a moving force on behalf of the people in everything from saving medical services, to preserving public spaces (e.g. the Presidio) … Angela has taken on the tobacco industry, the cell phone antenna microwave monster … she’s championed public power and been persecuted by the Brown/Burton machine. … I talked over her chances last Friday at Moonstar on Market & 8th or so with two of the most insightful people I know … “Her campaign office is like a ghost town!” exclaimed ‘Joefire’, an ethereal fellow online political junkie. “She needs to show she can muster up unpaid volunteers.” … I agreed, as did Eileen Left, who had arranged the meeting. “I gave you a bunch of ideas about exactly that!” stormed Eileen (she has little patience) … “Didn’t you give them to her!?” … I had to admit that, though I’d passed on ideas a few weeks ago, they’d had no effect and I pretty much figured Alioto’s ‘World Class’ consultants were going to lead her in the wrong direction. … Yeah, uh huh. … That’s about the way it is there. … Angela has the best chance of all of the declared candidates to beat Newsom, but she’s always had trouble with consultants (Jack Davis represented her?!) … I predict these New York Republican boys weren’t the best choice to run a San Francisco campaign. … You wonks out there help me … has an out-of-town consulting outfit ever elected a mayor in San Francisco? So, who’s left? No one. … Newsom is already Mayor. … Read em and weep. … His boyhood bodyguard is the Chief of Police. Half of the City Department Heads treat him like he’s already Mayor. The next President of the Board of Supervisors will be Bevan Dufty. Jim Lazzarus is the next District #2 supe. … ‘Reform’ Board’s stars? … Hall and Peskin will survive because they earned their bones fighting the Getty/Newsom machine in their districts this year. In a ‘ranked-choice’ election scenario, either could be mayor this year but the only people who still think we’re going to have IRV implemented this year are Matt Gonzalez and Zippy, the Pinhead. … Naw, the ‘chieftains’ who ran away when Newsom’s boy, Shanley threw down the gauntlet will be history. Every reform the new Board enacted will become a hollow joke under Board President Bevan Dufty. His appointments will all come from the Mayor’s office (which will mean Getty) … the Planning Commission will once again vote 100% against the public interests. The cops will keep crushing skulls both on and off duty. No one will hold them accountable. Private interests will complete their takeover of the marinas and the golf courses and stables and the Veterans building. … That’s, of course, the best case scenario. It’s all so depressing. … Huh? … huh? … let’s get naked with the candidates. Who is showering with whom these days? With a big thanks to farmer mayor, Frank Jordan … let’s take a fanciful leap and guess who we might find in the showers of today’s leading candidates for mayor. Let’s just get a grip on our cameras, microphones (and, ‘crystal balls’) … pull back those curtains and see who’s there: With Susan Leal: … Carol Migden & Tom Ammiano With Gavin Newsom: … Chris Daly & Matt Gonzalez With Tony Hall: … Arnold Schwarznegger & Pee Wee Herman With Angela Alioto: … Jack Davis & Gary Condit With Jim Reid: … (In a personally designed unit called ‘Shower I’) … Martha Stewart, Michael Denny, Tony Ribera, Joe O’Donoghue & John Shanley. With Aaron Peskin: … … … Doesn’t shower. Just joshing … You smell that?