Watching City Hall #233, NOVEMBER 13, 2003 Watching Matt go … & go … & go I am living 24/7 in the middle of the most significant political event in San Francisco in the last 20 years. Probably longer. … Richard Marquez & Chrisine Olague stroll by my office as I speak. They are the conscience of the Mission for the past couple of decades. Charles Kalish & Walter Wong pass them heading toward where the the stage is under construction. Charles is a high energy political dilletente who has always gotten by on his looks, charm & the fact that he’s the only jew in town who owns a pickup truck (there Charles, there’s your mention!). And, Walter? If you don’t know who Walter Wong is, you don’t know much about the powers that be in this town. I’m working on a piece just about him and Matt. Matt rents his headquarters from Walter and the place is growing like … Yeah, there shoud be a jazz band playing live in a few hours. Drive by and dig it. 13th & Mission. Bottom floor of Walter’s CitiCenter building. You’ll be able to see the band playing just inside the 100 feet of windows that line the Mission street side of the headquarters (or, from the freeway off & on ramp). Student volunteers by the dozen carry stored furniture from the cavernous area into storage. Soon the music will sound. Randy Knox (campaign treasurer & old Gonzo friend) kicks in on his way to the horseshoe of offices on the 13th street side of the building where the senior staff live. Randy and his wife actually went to my jazz club in St. Louis (all our hometown) … way back in 1977. … Bruce Wolfe who runs the total facilities reconstruction (I swear, it’s like watching a complicated carnival get set up - hell, it’ll all be over in 26 days!) … Bruce has been working for 30 straight hours & is trailed by his equally exhausted service dog, Charlie. … Matt Spencer, who is in charge of phone banking (he began as volunteer coordinator but as the campaign grows, everyone changes jobs & takes on new burdens - I love to watch young people work) … Matt comes by, red-eyed from a cat-nap and reads the day’s newspaper clips I’ve posted on the walls. I worked in the ‘clip room’ at the L.A. Times 20 years ago & I’ve been filling boxes with clips since. Rick Galbreath stops to read the day’s news. He’s ‘Co-Field Campaign Manager & a serious wordsmith. When PJ Corkerey ran a blurb in his column this morning (pjcorkerey.com) in which he lambasted Gonzo & I in a rumor-laden blurb, I ran to Rick (he came from the Ammiano campaign) and he gave me a new word for ‘porch’. … It’s ‘lanai. PJ said Matt sent me to live on a porch. I thought it was a riot. Actually, he offered me the back bedroom of his apartment for the duration of the campaign when my roomie & I got termed out of our apartment building when it was sold. Believe me, every reporter in town would love to live on that ‘porch’. It opens onto a huge beautiful garden where Matt practices for debates and reads poetry. The entire apartment is one big art gallery. I preferred to be onsite for the duration & Matt & Walter Wong hooked me up with an office with a shower. … PJ, I’m not abused. Frankly, my ass is sore from being kissed. I run over to the kitchen to flirt with Tracey Hughes who cooks huge kettles of organic soups every day. Paul Hayward, who is building the mini jazz club before the street windows veers between volunteer construction workers & leans into my door to announce: ‘”We’ve got a baby grand piano in perfect tune!” I quickly inquire (everyone here is in high gear and they only pause for a second): What the hell’s your title?” … He looks surprised. … “I’m a lounge lizard!” finally replies. … He’s building a nightclub in the middle of a campaign office. Three days ago, a car hit his motorcycle as Paul was approaching Matt’s digs. Paul is one strong guy and he was able to literally leap from the cycle cleanly as the car made contact. … Not even scratched! … There are people like this all over the place … What an incredible setting. Next through is Elana Galante who ran Angela Alioto’s victorious Prop ‘J’ campaign. (Her honey is Chance Martin of ‘Street Sheet’ fame) She’s Matt’s office manager for the duration now. We realize we lived at the Harcourt Hotel at the same time … long, long ago. JoeFire approaches (in an ‘Alioto for mayor’ T shirt) … “Don’t you care if no one reads you?” he exclaims. I get a lot of that. … Ahhh, what a place. … This is a good place to stop and go through the mechanizations it takes to post this. (Enrique Pierce - Matt’s Campaign Manager - leans in to say ‘Hi’ see’s I’m writing and entolls: “Leave me out of it.” - you’d be surprised how many people don’t wanna appear in my column - I never claimed to be Herb Cain) … It’s nice guys. … Really. … Truly. … You take the Ritz PJ … I’ll live on Matt’s … ‘back porch’. Matt4mayor: