A Board of Mistresses for Gavin Newsom; Even More JROTC ...
by , 2008-10-09
To the Editor:
It’s hard to have faith in San Francisco’s election process when you read reports such as the one that Paul Hogarth did in these pages yesterday (“Prop V a Soft Money Conduit to Attack Progressives”).
Prop. V, a resolution affirming support for JROTC, the military recruitment program for 14- and 15-year olds, is being used by right-wingers in the city to attack progressive candidates for the Board of Supervisors and pump up their conservative favorites.
JROTC was recently phased out by the School Board, not the Board of Supervisors. Under a state mandate, that body also took away PE credit for the Pentagon program. The Board of Supervisors had nothing whatsoever to do with approving or disapproving JROTC.
It doesn’t matter. The Republican Party, the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Realtors, Plan C and other conservative groups in San Francisco, are using Prop V to attack candidates they don’t want on the Board of Supervisors. They are funneling money into Prop V that can be used to attack progressive candidates who support the School Board’s phase-out of JROTC and its current replacement leadership programs.
I’m sure when it really comes down to it, San Francisco’s monied right-wingers don’t even care about JROTC. They simply want to give Gavin Newsom, their buddy, his own board of mistresses.
It’s been a rough eight years for the dark side since progressives staged a coupe against former Mayor Willie Brown’s “mistresses,” (his term) his hand-picked Board of Supervisors. With the exception of Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Sue Bierman, they were a submissive bunch, those men and women who did Brown’s bidding on development and gentrification, greasing the bank accounts of the already rich.
During the dot-com boom, they fiddled while neighborhoods went upscale and poor and working-class folks (including many seniors, disabled folks and persons with AIDS) were given a one-way ticket out of the city.
Progressives took to the streets, then to the ballot. We convinced Ammiano to do a write-in campaign against Brown when he was up for re-election. While we weren’t able to get Ammiano into the mayor’s office, we managed to put a progressive majority on the board, thanks to the re-institution of district elections that year.
Now, downtown wants the Board back so badly they’re willing to do anything, even use a non-binding resolution on a military recruitment program to influence races that have nothing whatsoever to do with that program.
The Ethics Commission should investigate this. Now. San Francisco should be the last place on earth where money can buy Gavin Newsom his own board of mistresses.
Tommi Avicolli Mecca
San Francisco
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link:
feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-771-9850 (phone)