As you can see, I was far back in the crowd. It was hard to get good pictures, so allow me to share the ones from the previous Sunday with you:
12/07/2003: I saw these guys all say Matt Gonzalez is the guy to vote for next Tuesday in San Francisco. From the left they were introduced as: Supervisor Chris Daly, Supervisor Sandoval, former Mayor Art Agnos, and Actor Danny Glover. I was there because I wanted to put the same idea into action walking precincts to deliver his literature to people in the city.
At the election night party there were also speeches by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, Peter Camejo, Susan King (left above), Public Defender Jeff Adachi (right above). Danny Glover wasn't there. When Matt Gonzalez gave his concession speech the room got a bit quieter. He talked about how important it is going to be to build on the progress we have made so far. He urged us to make a difference in upcoming school board and Supervisorial races, where the groundwork will be laid for further progress. He said that if we do that over the next four years, we will get the Mayors seat when it comes up again.
Looks like DJGoldilox has an opinion about what the next four years (under Neusom) will be like.
I got this picture of Matt somewhere around 11 PM, when yet another reporter wanted him to do yet another interview. He was soldiering on gracefully.
The next morning on KQED's Forum they talked about the runoff for an hour. The spin was "this race was the revolution against the military campaign". Many callers talked about getting hit peices from Newsom allies every day, some with awful pictures of their competators in them. The guests who were all political commentators said things like "how can a $400,000 campaign compete with a $4 Million campaign?" I guess it is a major miricle that it was Gonzalez 47.43% and Neusom 52.57%. There was also speculation that the rain kept the fair weather voters home. Those were the people Matt was counting on for victory.
Then later in the day I found the following in my emailbox:
>
>I was up in SF last night (election day). The polls had just closed,
>it was 8:45pm, and I was driving back to Matt's 13th/Mission office
>from the precinct I was captaining that day (the precinct, by the way,
>was out in the semi-tony Western Addition, where Matt won 99 votes to
>87). Unfortunately, the radio was already saying that Newsom had the
>election pretty much wrapped up, so I was expecting to see nothing at
>13th and Mission but defeat and dejection. But it was the opposite!
>It was a freakin' party!!! As Democratic supervisor Chris Daly said
>(to a wild roar): "It'll be written in history that on a rainy Tuesday
>in December, a revolution has begun."
>
>It was great seeing all the progressive Democrats honoring Matt, that
>Democratic supervisor wearing his green necktie and shouting into the
>microphone: "Green is beautiful!", the other Democratic supervisor who
>confessed to crying when he stood in the Gonzalez Campaign HQ and saw
>the truly awe-inspiring Green/progressive volunteer wave flowing
>through the building, the OTHER Democratic supervisor who introduced
>Peter Camejo saying that the one good thing about the recall election
>was that Camejo got into the debates, "and he won every f**cking one of
>them." And then Matt was finally introduced. And there were 2 solid
>minutes of wicked ovation--it was so loud, he couldn't even talk! For
>two minutes! Everyone was chanting: "Whose city? OUR city!"
>
>Matt was the picture of grace. Magnanimous. Asking us all to be good
>sports. Promising to work with Newsom where they agree, and fight him
>where they don't. And he assured us that there was a historic
>inevitibility to what this Green/progressive coalition had begun...
>that it doesn't matter that we didn't win _this_ particular election.
>Because, ultimately, it WILL happen in San Francisco. And that
>whatever happens in San Francisco will happen across the country, 10 or
>15 years later. That's just the way it works.
>
>Finally, I'll always remember the faces of the hundreds of Gonzalez
>volunteers afterwards, as they were leaving the party. They didn't
>look down, or depressed, or bitter. Seriously. I saw smiles. I heard
>laughter. It was like they were coming out of a Fishbone concert! And
>I realized something: everyone (EVERYONE) there was doing this not for
>money, or prestige, but out of love. Love! And that's a very, very
>powerful thing. They felt it. They knew it. In fact, all of San
>Francisco felt that power last night. Not just the Gonzalez
>supporters, but everyone. They HAD to. Even Gavin Newsom.
>
>This ain't the end. Not by the longest shot. The Green Party, make no
>mistake, is on the rise in California
>
>I'm pretty stoked, to be honest.
>
>If anyone else was there, I'd love to hear what your experience was
>like,
>
>Patrick Meighan
>patsweetpat (circle a character goes here) verizon.net
>
I got the steroids testing sticker by trading one of my MEND YOUR FUELISH WAYS stickers for it at that party. My barter parner said it was "her sticker" and that she should have brought more of them with her.