Watching City Hall #205, AUGUST 8, 2003“Lancelot dropped his visor and
turned for his first run.
The old ‘groom’ looked down
to hide his broad smile …
For he alone, knew what was
about to happen.”
(from: ‘The Once and Future King’ by T.H. White)
Lancelot was 17 years old when he entered that first tourney in England. He’d been trained all of his life for this moment but, … he had no idea how good he was. Only his personal trainer knew. He’d trained history’s best knight in seclusion in France and it was time that the world knew what he’d accomplished.
San Francisco is the modern Camelot. … Matt Gonzalez is the modern Lancelot. … Yup, uh huh, that’s the truth. This boy is not manufactured image. He is the real thing. The ‘aw shucks’, Jimmy Stewart demeanor is real. The sacrificing of material comforts in exchange for the opportunity to serve the public is real. … This guy didn’t enter politics as an appointee of the Brown/Burton machine, put there to further serve the interests of his rich masters (like Newsom). Nope, the guy, like Lancelot … doesn’t understand that he can’t lose. … Can’t lose. The competition is papier mache’ and San Franciscans can tell the difference. Look for the Mexican/American kid from the Texas border town to out-poll Newsom by mid-October.
Hurt feelings, elation & near-miss
I hung out with Gonzalez Monday while Joel Bernstein’s crew (Producer/Director Ron Ress) taped the latest ‘Matt Gonzalez show. I did a couple of my raging lunatic promos, then spent the next couple of hours making a final pitch to him about why he should run for mayor. He said he was sorry to disappoint me, but he just wasn’t going to do it. I went home glad to have hung out with the kid and pretty much resigned to the reality of Mayor Newsom. … Things changed the next night.
It was almost midnight when the phone rang. … Now, you know me, I’m given to partying hard and not always adverse to a touch of strong spirits. … Therefore, I’m usually down for the night by 10pm or so. … Also, I share a phone with my friend, Ania Wierbowska and I generally keep the ringer turned off on my extension except when she’s out of the building. Now, I’m used to fires and shootings and wrecks and suicides but this ring sounded different. I picked it up.
It was Eileen Left
Eileen: “He’s gonna run!!”
h.: (knowing immediately) “Gonzalez!?”
Eileen: “I was just in a meeting with his brain trust. You know, Whitney and Randy and Marianne and Aimee. That group. Enrique looks like point person.”
h.: “My Gawd! Who else knows about this?”
Eileen: “No one and you can’t tell anyone! I just figured you had a right to know.”
h.: “Lord, Lord. When will he announce?”
Eileen: “Look for the shit to hit the fan Friday.”
I keep my mouth shut
(more or less)
OK, I told Ania. Who’s she gonna tell, anyway? … And, I did ask JoAnn Remstad, (whose friend works for Newsome) … I asked JoAnn if she’d work for Matt if he ran. She’d met him for the first time the previous Friday at his monthly art show/wine fest. “Of course!” she said immediately. … And, I might have mentioned it to Mar Wan, my friend who owns the liquor store on the corner. … My student loan officer needed to know. Iggy, the postman, as an employee of the federal government certainly had a right to the information. … Like I said, I kept pretty much clammed up. … Hell, no one believes anything I say anyway.
Thursday night
(8pm)
Eileen: “It will be in the Examiner tomorrow morning!”
h.: “He hasn’t called me. Am I gonna get shut out of this whole thing?”
Eileen: “You have a big mouth, that’s all. Every Court needs a jester, so you’re in. Just make sure your voter registration is in order. He says he promised you he’d let you sign his nomination papers if he entered and I don’t want you fuckin’ everything up. … You got any pot? I may need to sleep on Ania’s couch too.”
Friday
Matt called a bit past 8am after he’d taken out the papers. I couldn’t sleep and was up by 3am going over the rumors all over the internet. Now, they were more than rumors. Milk Club was madder than a wet hen. The Ex’s Adriel Hampton took the scoop of Gonzo’s last minute entry and crafted it into the day’s best news story. He paired it with the status of Tony Hall’s campaign (Hampton has noted that the Hall/Gonzalez relationship is a kind of ‘rat pack’ thing & he’s right – together, these guys make everyone else in the room – including Newsom – make em look like tourists from Peoria) … Yeah, the race needed Tony Hall and didn’t get him. That would have been something to see. If Newsom actually showed up to debate, they’d have eaten him alive (Gonzalez will do it alone) … I could see a run-off in December between Hall and Gonzalez. No one else could, but I could … and, no one who actually pays attention can deny I’m usually right. … I told Gonzo I’d make the scene around 2pm and finally went to sleep. By the time I woke up, it was after 2pm.
Just in case … remember this moment
Gonzalez really does combine the Lancelot/Jimmy Stewart kind of aura. When I hit his office a bit after 3pm, I expected to see it jammed with people, foyer/inner & conference areas. … He wasn’t even there. No cameras. No reporters. No candidate (which for a guy who pretty much lives in his office was truly amazing) … Of course, Eileen Left was there (and showing way too much leg). Years from now Gonzalez finishes his second term as U.S. President, historians will write about this day and how close all of it came to not happening.
h.: “I checked my registration and I’m cool. Has he filed yet?”
Eileen: “Nope. He’s supposed to be here in 15 minutes or so.” (Filing deadline was 5pm and all he needed was a couple of dozen signatures and a cashier’s check for $3,400 and he was set.) …
h.: “This is nuts! I mean, it’s OK to file a counter-ballot measure at 5 minutes til 5, but you don’t take chances like this with the paperwork for a major candidate!”
Eileen: “Says the guy who never got more than 1% of the vote.”
(we are interrupted by the opening of the inner office door – Marianne Love steps out – she’s Gonzo’s legislative aide and it’s her last day before she heads back to Berkeley & school – Matt mentors aides like a Queen bee sending worker bees all over the world and some of them will surely even surpass him)
Marianne: “h. Matt says go on up and meet him at his house.”
h.: (I’m psyched, assuming there will be a serious war council there and I’m going to at least watch and report a bit or, maybe even contribute) … “Can Eileen go?”
Marianne: “I think Eileen can probably go anywhere in the world she wants.”
He’s alone – but has tequila
It’s 4pm by the time Eileen and I arrive. She stops outside the door and unbuttons some things and unzips others and I shake my head and tell her that Jimmy Stewart doesn’t do the deed with trollops and we’re bickering and one of Matt’s roommates, Michael … lets us in. Gonzo is pacing the apartment like a large caged panther. It’s so unusual to see him not surrounded by mounds of paper and computer monitors and people … just Matt … and his cat. The cat smiles and we smile back.
h.: “I was over at the Department of Elections and Doug Comstock was doing the rest of Angela’s paperwork. There were a couple of Harris’ people there and they said they didn’t think you’d make it in the race because the mayor thinks you can’t raise $3,400.”
Matt: “They may be right.”
Eileen: “Seriously, are you paying cash?”
Matt: “I’m gonna give em a check.”
Eileen: “It HAS to be a cashier’s check or cash … they won’t take a personal check!”
The next 30 minutes are a blur. Matt makes a couple of low key calls to be certain Eileen is right. Then, he relays instructions to Randy Knox & Enrique who are headed to pick Matt up & take him to City Hall. They’d planned to have the filing done by noon, or 2pm at the latest. … It is 4:20pm and the candidate is not yet united with his nominating petitions and moolah. What if there’s a line at Elections? … Randy drops Enrique at a bank in the Mission to get the cashier’s check and heads back to pick up Matt. Art Agnos is in front of Matt’s house when he emerges. … Art has brought some mayoral duds for the young challenger. … Say, huh?
‘A little help from my friends’
“Art asked me, ‘How do you live on 35k a year?’ and I said that I live cheap and my friends help.” … That’s how Matt got his suits from Art. … Former mayor Agnos is one of Gonzo’s many friends across the spectrum and they were having dinner. … “Hey, I’ve got a closet full of suits and a lot I never even wear. Why don’t you come over and pick some out and I’ll have them tailored for you?” … This was weeks ago. Gonzo had chosen 5 great suits (“They only needed a little work around the arms.”) … Now, here was Agnos, personally delivering the suits to Matt on the day Matt files for mayor. … And, accidentally meeting Matt in front of his apartment without having called beforehand. … Weird, huh? … A San Francisco moment. … Here, while Eileen and I watch, a past mayor (who got shot in the Zodiac spree) … here’s Agnos passing these fresh suits to what could well be the next mayor … while Enrique gets the cashier’s check 2 miles away and heads down to Bart. It’s not supposed to be this exciting. … Randy Knox, Matt’s campaign treasurer, pulls up and we pile in. It is 4:40pm. Eileen and I sign the nominating petition which has a few remaining blanks. What if there’s a line at Elections?
Seat of your pants ending
Matt and Randy took turns phoning Enrique on Bart. He was on at 16th! “What if it stops in the tunnel?” said Eileen, helpfully. We were stopped at a light on Franklin. It was 4:45pm. Matt just grinned: “Like clockwork.” … Yep, that’s what he said. Enrique was off Bart at Civic Center, had the check and was sprinting through U.N. Plaza scattering pigeons and drunks. We were pulling into the loading dock area. Randy had Matt sign a couple of more papers while we waited for Enrique, who appeared as a growing speck racing up Grove. It was 4:50pm. We merged at the door at 4:52pm.
There was a line
It wasn’t a long line. … None, really. Elections had their act together for the last minute rush. They weren’t gonna lose a candidacy through not being prepared. Eileen and I backed off into the hall to read Rachel Gordon’s notes over her shoulder. Matt waded into the tv cameras and reporters as easily as a kid easing into a cool Texas river on a hot August day. The new suit looked good. It was 4:58pm. We’d made it. I turned to back up further and ran into one of Gavin Newsom’s aides. “Cutting it a little close.” the staffer said. I just looked. Eileen ran her fingers through his hair and said: “We did it on purpose for the dramatic effect.” … Ya gotta like that girl.
I’m gonna go watch the Giants now. Then, the 49’ers. I am in Heaven. Afterwards, I’m going to make up my Gonzalez for Mayor sign and hang it in Ania’s window. How’s about you making your own sign for your own window? We got somethin’ going on here.
Gonzalez for mayor!: h@ludd.net
