SAN FRANCISCO — Volunteers take yoga breaks. Musicians wander in to plunk out tunes on the borrowed grand piano or entertain supporters with the mournful sounds of the didgeridoo. More than 300 local artists have covered the walls with their lent works, turning this once-barren warehouse into the city's largest impromptu gallery.
Just a month ago, this space was vacant. Today, it is ground zero for the upstart mayoral campaign of Board of Supervisors President and Green Party member Matt Gonzalez.
Gonzalez's opponent, millionaire entrepreneur and city Supervisor Gavin Newsom, was widely expected to sail to the finish line without a hair out of place. He has campaigned for more than a year as the chosen successor of outgoing Mayor Willie Brown. In the November general election, voters handed Newsom a resounding 42% to 20% lead over Gonzalez in the nine-candidate field.
But after Gonzalez leapfrogged his progressive mentors to snag the runoff slot, the landscape of this city's top political contest shifted with a seismic jolt.
With two days before residents vote Tuesday, Democratic Party favorite Newsom is on the defensive. And Gonzalez, whose shaggy mane and ill-fitting suits contrast sharply with Newsom's slicked-back hair and preppy attire, has created a buzz in liberal circles as a populist cure to politics as usual.
Newsom, 36, has outspent Gonzalez by about 10 to one, pouring more than $3.6 million into mailers that have turned increasingly negative as the race has tightened. He has secured a range of Democratic Party endorsements, including former Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi -- who has warned that a Green Party victory in the nonpartisan race would damage the Democrats.
At Gonzalez's Mission district headquarters, supporters relax on donated sofas in a low-lighted lounge named the Elector8 -- in a twist on San Francisco's defunct Club DV8.
Here, volunteers who have swelled in ranks from 1,000 to more than 4,000 in weeks sip organic juice and talk about a new era in national politics if Gonzalez, 38, can pull off an upset. Many are new to politicking and have embraced the candidate's image as an ethical outsider who will place the interests of the working poor above corporate concerns.
