Matt Gonzalez and Jeff Adachi

Photo: Amy Osborne

Somehow the story in this morning's SF Chronicle about the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi became about Matt Gonzalez, not Adachi:

It is not unusual for police to get involved after the death of a public official, but Gonzalez expressed frustration about how the death has been handled. “It has been disappointing to hear — I’ve been told, I don’t know if it’s true — that the police or members of the department, who did not like Jeff, have been trying to spread rumors, trying to make the circumstances of his death more salacious and trying to suggest all kinds of misconduct,” he said. “I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been a fighter against them and battled them the way he did.”

If Gonzalez doesn't know it's true, why make the charge against city cops? 

"Salacious"? Apparently Adachi was having dinner with a woman who wasn't his wife and staying at a nearby apartment for the night. Not particularly remarkable but a matter that only concerns his family, not the police.

Oddly, the story veers off into a digression about Gonzalez, who will apparently lead the Public Defender's office until a new department head is elected:

Attorneys throughout the criminal justice system have praised Gonzalez’s legal mind. As a city supervisor from 2001 to 2005, he led the board’s progressive faction before running for mayor in 2003. He narrowly lost to now-Gov. Gavin Newsom. “His legacy will be the great 2003 political race. It was the hallmark election of the last 20 years,” said San Francisco political analyst David Latterman. “We’ve never seen a race that polarizing. It was the leftists against what was going to be the new wave.”

A "great political race" in 2003? I was here for that race, and the most important issue was the city's growing homeless problem. Newsom got Care Not Cash on the ballot in 2002, and made homelessness the central issue in his successful 2003 campaign for mayor against Gonzalez. 

Gonzalez, on the other hand, had no serious response to Care Not Cash and the public's concern about homelessness, about which the city's left has always been clueless.

See also Matt Gonzalez: Ideologue, The Matt Myth, and More thoughts from Chairman Matt.