The Perils of Writing Beyond Chron

Any words about a progressive political candidate that are less than glowing are viewed as traitorous, and activists interpret omitted or misremembered facts not as accidental, but as part of a conscious campaign against their person. I got a classic example of this progressive backlash following my November 13 survey of the 2008 District 9 and 11 Supervisor races. Supervisor Chris Daly even wrote a whole blog entry about my article; his piece foreshadows my concern that a race with multiple progressives could foster division rather than unity.

I decided to write about the District 9 and 11 races because I was struck in October how many activists were already focusing on campaigns that were more than a year and three elections away. And District 9 was particularly interesting because the race featured three well-known progressives in a district that has only been represented to date by Tom Ammiano.

I hoped the piece would educate readers about the candidate field, and offer preliminary observations on the respective candidates. Writing about five candidates necessarily limits the amount of reporting on any one, a fact many critics overlooked.

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