The Donalds

The above cartoon was from 1973. See the New Yorker's The Trump Trope.

Matt supports Dean

A fund-raising letter from Matt Gonzalez:

Hi Rob, 

I have known Dean Preston for twenty years and can say that he has always been on the right side of important political issues, every single time. 

On the Board of Supervisors, he will be an independent voice and an important check on mayoral power and runaway development. He'll stand with tenants who are getting priced out of San Francisco, and he'll protect local businesses that are the backbone of San Francisco's economy.

I represented District 5 when the city returned to district elections after two decades of city-wide elected supervisors. I can say from experience that the key to succeeding in the job is to be motivated by good values and commit yourself to working to improve the lives of your constituents. I am certain that Dean will be that kind of Supervisor. (Matt Gonzalez, former President, San Francisco Board of Supervisors)

Rob's comment:

Except for housing, specifically which "important issues" has Preston been on the "right side" of? He's opposed to chain stores on Divisadero, which is good. But he also opposed a bank, which seemed problematic to me. He's evidently on the side of the angels on housing---against evictions and for more affordable housing---but what else does he stand for? You won't find out from his campaign website, which is all happy-talk and housing. It's fair to say that so far Dean Preston is essentially a one-issue candidate.

Nor is Matt Gonzalez a very reliable guide to "the right side" of city issues. As a supervisor, he and the Bicycle Coalition led the city to screw up the Market/Octavia intersection; he neglected the homeless issue, which led to Gavin Newsom's election as mayor in 2003; as he was leaving office, he thought it was cool to allow a graffiti "artist" to deface the walls of his City Hall office with juvenile political slogans; and he helped give birth to the undemocratic ranked choice voting system that led to the election of Preston's political opponent, Supervisor London Breed, who has been wrong on almost every issue since she took office.

Supervisor Breed has been running with the City Hall lemmings and the Bicycle Coalition on the Masonic Avenue bike project, which will screw up traffic in this part of town. Does Preston think he won't have to take a position on that? What about the dumb idea of eliminating the Fillmore/Geary underpass? Breed supports it. What does Preston think about that? 

Incumbent Breed will probably be able to fuzz the housing issue by essentially agreeing with Preston that eviction is bad and that we need more affordable housing, which means he'll have to define himself by his positions on other issues.

He could start my mulling over these questions that were ignored by the 2012 candidates.