Newsom vs. Daly: Teflon vs. Real Values

For months, Daly has been saying that he’s thinking of leading the progressive charge against the moderate mayor. He recently called a Progressive Convention to try and inspire a candidate to take on the ever-popular incumbent. A lot of grassroots activists attended, expecting that Daly or fellow progressive Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi (District 5) would make the big announcement.

Or even that ex-Supervisor Matt Gonzalez would rush onto the stage at the last moment to say he was ready for a rematch with the man he almost defeated three years ago. After hours of feel-good speeches, no one declared.

Gonzalez has since said that he definitely won’t be challenging Newsom. It doesn’t mean that the mayor is running unopposed. A lot of people have stated their intentions to run. Some of them are damn good candidates. The problem is: They don’t have the name recognition of a Chris Daly. Except possibly for Josh Wolf, the alternative journalist who was unjustly imprisoned for refusing to turn over his raw footage from a demo in which a police car was allegedly roughed up.

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