Activists Should Ignore Newsom’s Town Hall Filibuster

by Paul Hogarth, Beyond Chron (reposted)

Sat, May 12, 2007 7:57AM

Tomorrow, Mayor Newsom will hold his 5th neighborhood “Town Hall” as he avoids the voter-approved Question Time at the Board of Supervisors. This month, it will be in West Portal. If you didn’t know about it, you’re not alone. The Mayor’s Office sent a press release this week announcing it with little fanfare. Most of the media ignored the last one, and for good reason. There really is nothing left to report, as these “Town Hall lectures” are just city-funded campaign events for a Mayor who is running for re-election unopposed. The protesters came to the first few and made their point, but what else is there to prove? By continuing to attend these sessions, progressives are hurting their own cause more than Newsom’s.

For those who would like to see the Teflon Mayor held accountable, it’s annoying that he continues to defy a simple proposition that the voters passed. But the activists who have attended every one of his “Town Hall” meetings need to re-think their strategy. Why continue to hound him at events that the media no longer pays attention to, and that the Mayor’s Office won’t even care to publicize?

At the first event in the Richmond, activists showed up in chicken suits to drive the point home that Newsom was “too chicken” to attend a monthly Board of Supervisors meeting and have a serious policy dialogue. They stole the show, and exposed the whole absurdity of the event. The Mayor’s Office had trumped up turnout with invitations and R.S.V.P. requests and held it in San Francisco’s ultimate “swing district,” so it made sense at the time to highlight Newsom’s shameless and cavalier attitude.

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