That didn't take long!
4 days actually.
Ralph Nader, an independent candidate for president, just announced
that former San Francisco Supervisor and Board President Matt Gonzalez
will be his running mate in the November elections.
"We're both honored to be running together and look forward to
addressing issues, conditions and solutions ignored by the other major
party candidates," Nader tells reporters in Washington.
So who's Matt Gonzalez and why would Ralph Nader pick him as his running mate?
Well, for one thing he's people powered, or at least he used to be.
Matt Gonzales is one of the first people I ever gave money too.
Although I was politically active I never felt the need to really go full bore for something until he made his run for SF Mayor in 2003.
Although i'm an Oakland guy pure and proud, I spend a decent amount of time in SF, at the time worked there, and a lot of my friends lived there.
Matt Gonzalez said all the right things, he was a true progressive, talking progressive ideas when it still had not become in fashion popularly. He played bass, he had good ideas, and he'd be a hell of a mayor.
He ran a people powered campaign that brought together artists, poor folks and working class people leery of a Democratic Party that was even more synonomous with "sell out" then they are now.
Also, believe it or not kids Democratic candidate Gavin Newsom, his opponent and the eventual winner was the DLC posterchild.
Nope, i'm not kidding, the "progressive icon", at the time was a posterboy for third way style politics. He ran as the "business friendly" candidate.
Newsom barely won the mayor's race, and that was after bringing out Democratic big guns like Bill Clinton.
Now Newsom, to his credit, listened to the voting base and switched his positions to more progressive stances, and even took leadership on gay marriage.
Still, perhaps it's a little more understandable why I cringe when people talk about Gavin for higher office.
In any case, that is neither here nor there, Matt currently is in private practice and a lot of people have been wondering what he's up to.
Other then a close friendship and support for Dennis Kucinich's presidential runs ("he should really run as a green" Matt said once, I disagree), he hasn't really done that much.
In all honesty, I was thinking he would start preparing for a challenge (as a Democrat) to Feinstein, but I guess not.
For some odd reason, he's decided to hitch his card to Ralph Nader, not in 2000, but in 2008.
Matt used to be a Democrat, here's why he switched:
I couldn't help thinking of how most of my support in last year's district attorney's race came as a result of being allowed into televised debates with my better-known opponents and how that support has eventually led to my being the frontrunner in the District 5 supervisorial race.
The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wasn't OK with it. I didn't want to be a member of a party that was urging the exclusion of a candidate solely on the grounds that the candidate didn't have enough support, when it's precisely television coverage that could win that candidate public acceptance.
So if the Democratic Party is working so hard to squelch valuable debate, why should I remain a Democrat? I was already discouraged by Al Gore's pronouncements, during the presidential debates, in favor of the death penalty and his equivocation on gay marriage. As I reflected on this, I realized I had less in common with Feinstein's party than with Medea Benjamin's.
This totally makes sense back then, but the Democratic Party has come back around, and it is well positioned to have a strong, strong advocate of progressive principles as the first black (or woman president), so this move truly mystifies me.
Almost as much as Ralph Nader running in the first place.
Does this mean Nader is running as a Green?
Matt is all about party building, one of the reasons I don't support him anymore and DIDN'T support him when there was talk of him challenging Pelosi.
It really does make me sad though because Matt Gonzalez is a fantastic guy, who really connects with people and really fits in with our "crashing the gates" era Democratic Party, yet he's tilting at windmills needlessly with Ralph.
Lame.
-C.