The Matt Gonzalez for Mayor of San Francisco campaign -- as progressive a big-city mayoral candidate as the county has seen -- earned more than 100,000 votes and 47% of the total votes cast.
This blog from the San Francisco Bay Guardian summed up the power of progressive campaigns and the only way we build power: one precinct at a time.
The link is here, the poster is "capt matt" and I'll let the post speak for itself (although I prefer the term 'precinct organizer' to 'precinct captain')
suddenly i get it.
i have protested oil wars. i have signed petitions. written letters. made phone calls. posted signs.
but i have never been as involved in an electoral campaign as this one. i wrote campaign materials, gave money, and -- here's the key thing -- was a precinct captain.
in the course of doing that, a very hard 24 hour slog of knocking on doors, making calls, visiting the polling station, and doing it all over again, i saw probably thirty people vote for matt who either wouldn't have voted for him, or wouldn't have voted at all.
i saw results for the work I did, and all of a sudden i GET thinking globally and acting locally. i GET the power of neighborhoods. i GET "you can make a difference" platitudes. because i did, and i can.
and next time i'll be better at it. and inevitably, our time will come. harnessing the energy for positive social change we have here in the engine of local politics will bring about great things. it already has, and we're just beginning.
stay involved, and stay watching...
Posted by: capt matt at December 10, 2003 02:08 AM
...and my precinct came in at over 85% for matt.
together we can, indeed.
Posted by: capt matt at December 10, 2003 02:09 AM
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