User:Jim Dorenkott

[1]

Return to private life Following the mayoral contest, Gonzalez announced he would not seek re-election to the Board of Supervisors. Explaining his decision to retire from politics, he said:

I like the whole idea of disengaging from politics for a while and looking at things from the outside. I think the world would be a better place if politicians returned to private life from time to time... Hey, you've got to follow your instincts, you know. That's how I got into politics in the first place, joined the Green Party, ran for the board presidency and later for mayor. What am I supposed to do now? Not listen to myself?[29] Gonzalez left office when his term ended in January 2005 and opened a legal practice with Whitney Leigh. In May 2005 Gonzalez vowed to pursue legal action in order to overturn the contract of San Francisco school Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.[30] His firm has brought suit against a San Francisco hotel for not paying its workers the minimum wage[31]; two wrongful death suits against Sacramento police for their use of taser guns; against the city of San Jose and Ringling Brothers Circus for interfering with free speech rights of protestors; and against Clear Channel in a naming rights dispute over the locally owned San Francisco Warfield Theatre. It has also been involved in examining the New Year's Eve attack on the Yale Glee Club in Pacific Heights.[32]

As well as his many other talents, Gonzalez is an artist. In the spring of 2007, an exhibit of Gonzalez's collages was displayed at the Lincart gallery in San Francisco.

His successor to the Board of Supervisors is Ross Mirkarimi, a Green Party member and community activist who had also worked on Gonzalez's campaign.

^ Hampton, Adriel (March 29, 2004) "Supe Walks Away." San Francisco Examiner. ^ Woodward, Tali. "Cutting the Golden Parachute". Retrieved on 2006-05-10. See also Knight H., "Lawsuit filed to toss school chief's raise." San Francisco Chronicle, 23 June 2005, accessed 8 April 2006 ^ Hogarth, Paul (January 3, 2007) "Gonzalez Law Firm Scores Minimum Wage Victory" Beyond Chron ^ Matier, Phil; E. Ross (January 17, 2007) "Yalies' case -- not mayor's race -- brings Gonzalez back to spotlight." San Francisco Chronicle.

Return to private life

Following the mayoral contest, Gonzalez announced he would not seek re-election to the Board of Supervisors. Explaining his decision to retire from politics, he said:

I like the whole idea of disengaging from politics for a while and looking at things from the outside. I think the world would be a better place if politicians returned to private life from time to time... Hey, you've got to follow your instincts, you know. That's how I got into politics in the first place, joined the Green Party, ran for the board presidency and later for mayor. What am I supposed to do now? Not listen to myself?

Gonzalez left office when his term ended in January 2005 and opened a legal practice with Whitney Leigh. In May 2005 Gonzalez vowed to pursue legal action in order to overturn the contract of San Francisco school Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. and a moratorium on the death penalty His firm has brought suit against a San Francisco hotel for not paying its workers the minimum wage; two wrongful death suits against Sacramento police for their use of taser guns; against the city of San Jose and Ringling Brothers Circus for interfering with free speech rights of protestors; and against Clear Channel in a naming rights dispute over the locally owned San Francisco Warfield Theatre. It has also been involved in examining the New Year's Eve attack on the Yale Glee Club in Pacific Heights.

As well as his many other talents, Gonzalez is an artist. In the spring of 2007, an exhibit of Gonzalez's collages was displayed at the Lincart gallery in San Francisco.

His successor to the Board of Supervisors is Ross Mirkarimi, a Green Party member and community activist who had also worked on Gonzalez's campaign.

and a moratorium on the death penalty

His firm has brought suit against a San Francisco hotel for not paying its workers the minimum wage

References

His firm has brought suit against a San Francisco hotel for not paying its workers the minimum wage

While a playful December 2003 manifesto on his reasons to vote Green, stated "I read The Communist Manifesto and liked it", this obviously does not make one a Marxist.

Gonzalez continued to voice support for ideological views to the left of the Democratic Party. In March 2002, Gonzalez allegedly stunned a Golden Gate Breakfast Club audience by telling them, "Really, I am a Marxist." “Untrue”, Gonzalez says he knew he was speaking to a conservative group, and said you might think I am, but “I don’t consider myself a Marxist…I was trying to tell them I don’t hold radical views.” - While a playful December 2003 manifesto on his reasons to vote Green, stated "I read The Communist Manifesto and liked it", this obviously does not make one a Marxist. + In a playful December 2003 manifesto on his reasons to vote Green, he wrote, "I read The Communist Manifesto and liked it."

Current version While a playful December 2003 manifesto on his reasons to vote Green, stated "I read The Communist Manifesto and liked it", this obviously does not make one a Marxist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cite_your_sources#How_to_cite_sources

Gonzalez continued to voice support for ideological views to the left of the Democratic Party. In March 2002, Gonzalez allegedly stunned a Golden Gate Breakfast Club audience by telling them, "Really, I am a Marxist."

Two years later Gonzalez shocked the Establishment when he was elected to be President of the Board of Supervisors. Surprisingly, the tie-breaking vote came from the most conservative member of the Board, Tony Hall who said "Gonzalez is a man of integrity and intelligence who will carry out his responsibilities fairly and impartially." The victory occurred after 7 rounds of voting, despite some powerful Democrats urging the election of a Democrat, and outgoing President Ammiano's support for Sophie Maxwell who was the establishment and Willy Browns's candidate."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/01/09/MN206530.DTL&hw=Gonzalez+Election+as+President+Shocks+Democratic+Leaders&sn=001&sc=1000

Green Party scores a win on S.F. board Gonzalez's election as president shocks Democratic leaders Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, January 9, 2003

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2003/01/08/gonzalez.DTL&hw=board+president&sn=001&sc=1000

Potential answer to Griot:

You are a teacher; you know who the Establishment is, to refresh your memory from Random House, dictionary.com: 4. (often initial capital letter) the existing power structure in society; the dominant groups in society and their customs or institutions; institutional authority (usually prec. by the): The Establishment believes exploring outer space is worth any tax money spent. 5. (often initial capital letter) the dominant group in a field of endeavor, organization, etc. (usually prec. by the): the literary Establishment.

Who was surprised? according to Rachel Gordon: The Democratic leaders. This town is controlled by Democrats. They are the Establishment.

Anybody seeing the charactarization of Gonzalez as a lefty, marxist etc. would be surprised to learn that the most conservative member of the board was the tie-breaker vote to put him into the presidency of the BOS.

At this time he was the only candidate against the death penalty in all cases (a position embraced by all District Attorney candidates 4 years later).

(old version)Gonzalez's critics considered him a stubborn and willful idealogue. He walked out of Mayor Willie Brown's State of the City address in 2002; he refused to meet with Brown during his first two years on the Board of Supervisors.

Gonzalez's critics considered him a stubborn and willful idealogue. They cite the 2002 State of the City address "walkout". He explained to the Chronicle board during the mayor's race that he had not attended, because Brown at previous addresses had inappropriately made comments about individual board members when they had no chance to respond and he didn't want to be put in that position again. During his first 2 years on the board, he had not met with Brown acknowledging that he was no match for Brown's superior political skills. Once Gonzalez was board president and more seasoned he met regularly with Brown. Brown often praised him for his integrity and skills when Gonzalez was a guest on the "Will and Willie" radio program.

When the Board put forth a resolution commending Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a San Franciscan, for being elected House Minority Whip and being the first woman to hold that position, Gonzalez was the only board member who voted against it.

When asked by Newsom during the broadcast mayoral debate at the Commonwealth Club Gonzalez responded the supervisors shouldn't issue such a commendation for a partisan political vote. He had written Pelosi a personal note of congratulations as she did for him on the occasion of his election as board president.

Mayoral hopefuls come out swinging in debate Gonzalez questions Newsom's spending John Wildermuth, Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Political Writers

Wednesday, November 12, 2003