Taken from here:

T.H. White said that every campaign has a defining moment.
What has been the defining moment of this campaign for you?

“This campaign has been a phenomenon and good editors always tell reporters that when you’re covering a phenomenon, don’t try to make sense of it. Just go out and get color, quotes and details. Excite the visual imagination. Give the reader something to see, smell and hear. The campaign finally defined itself for me Wednesday (12-3-03). I went walking the streets in 3 neighborhoods. It was raining softly. I noticed that while I saw a few Newsom signs, I didn’t see a single Newsom button. There were plenty of Gonzalez buttons. That’s when I knew the phenomenon was real.”

“It was 8-8-03. I was lying on a beach in the South of France with my girlfriend. I checked my e-mail and there was a header from the Sentinel saying Matt was running. I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit, man. It’s on! It’s on! It was gonna be a dud man. It was gonna be a fucking dud, but with Matt in, the race was on.”

“They won’t like this, but being a veteran of Green campaigns, I’m not used to being with a candidate who has a chance to win. I guess my moment came two weeks ago, even before the polls started coming out. There was a change in the feeling in the street. You could actually feel the difference.”

“I thought it was when Ruth Dewson endorsed Gonzalez. She’s a woman. She’s black and she’s Willie Brown’s hat lady. She’s known as ‘the Mayor of Fillmore’ and is greatly respected in her neighborhood. …What makes it cool is that the day before was when Willie said Gonzalez was a sexist and a racist. Then, the next day, Dewson endorses him.”

“It was during the KPIX debate. I was watching it with my friend, Barbara L.. … There was a stock question about why they were running for mayor. Barbara favored Newsom who gave a stock answer. Matt said that he’d spent 10 years defending people as a public defender and that he thought that he could effect more people as a legislator and maybe help keep them from ever needing a public defender. He said that he wasn’t always right and that he learned from the public because many of the people who came to the events knew more than he did. … Her friend thought Matt was very thoughtful and she was impressed that … now, get this, … she was impressed that Rush Limbaugh had endorsed Matt.”

“When I looked around the Mission Headquarters and realized I was part of an amazing community of diverse individuals all coming together to support an honest politician. A man of integrity, a man who represents our beliefs, hopes and dreams for the future of the City. For the first time in a long while, I can see the future through optimistic eyes with a big smile on my face – Go Matt!”

“Before campaign … 2 years ago. Realizing Matt was ethical. It changed my view of politics. You can’t play that. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not.”

“When Newsom’s mailers went from being slick puff pieces to being vitriolic, vicious pieces of garbage showing disrespect for the electorate. They knew they had a formidable opponent.”

“It was November 4th, 2003 at 111 Minna. As the numbers came in and Matt caught up and they crowd started to realize he would be in the runoff … the feeling was transcendental.”

“It was when the Green party massed in Sacramento and endorsed him. I opened my political soul to him. It was a state plenary.”

“It was in the Bay View. When we opened the office I saw a grassroots response from youth, seniors, democrats who had supported Willie in the past but had become united in the belief that Matt would act upon their behalf in areas such as affordable housing, that he was against gentrification and favored environmental justice. And, he’ll represent small businesses.”

“When my mom said about Matt that ‘he is the Democrat that I used to remember.”

“At your birthday party a year and a half ago, you were ranting about Matt running for mayor. When I responded that you were crazy, you responded: ‘Who can beat him?’ and then, you asked me again: ‘WHO CAN BEAT HIM?’ … At first I was stumped, and then I replied: ‘Nobody.’”

“Walking into 111 Minna election night and seeing Joe O’Donoghue, Richard Marquez and Randy Shaw with their heads together in a huddle and thinking: ‘these are the alliances we have to forge to beat Newsom.’”

“It was the whole Alioto thing. That was when it just kind of flipped into absurdity. Well, what looked like a coup for Newsom, turned around and bit him in the butt.”

“I think on August 9th. I read online from Atlanta that Matt had entered the race and it was something I’d been waiting for a long time. I knew it would change the City, which is my hometown.”

“For me, it was riding the double-decker bus and eating popcorn and looking at the people responding to us.” (bus is plastered with ‘Gonzalez for Mayor’ signs and is bright red – it teams with a sunburst yellow fire truck to ferry hundreds of Matt supporters on hour and a half or so tours of the City, beginning & ending at Matt Central at 13th & Mission) …”

“The defining moment of this campaign occurred at 4:50pm on 8/8/03 when Matt Gonzalez – in essence sacrificed his quiet, private existence, acted with selfless courage, and entered the mayoral race. For a purpose & not as a premeditated stepping stone to higher office; or to satisfy an ego –trip – but rather to make this beautiful city a place where everyone can live & prosper. It’s a fabulous dream from which I hope to never awaken.”

“Willie’s workers were different. They were 8 to 5 and wear a tie. Work or go home. They’d bring in pizza every now and then, but that was it. Matt’s people are like a family. Willie didn’t have the great lounge with couches and music and Tracy Hughes & Marc Powell & Susan Kalish and their people cooking fresh food all day. But, you know, I think the defining moment came when the last door stopped working. So many people came to work for Matt that they literally wore out 3 push-bar doors. Not sabotage, either. The mechanisms just wore out.”

“It would have to be the story I heard where Walter Wong went to China and had the charts of all of the candidates read and found that Matt couldn’t lose. He said it was the best chart he ever saw.”

“It was when I saw the full-page ad in the Chronicle welcoming Al Gore on behalf of the Matt Gonzalez campaign. It showed the campaign could fend off a ruse (phony e-mail from Newsom Campaign urging Green protest) and turn it into a positive.”

“It would be on May 16, 2002. It was Bike to Work Day. I was talking to Willie Brown and he started grading the supervisors. I remember what he said about Matt: ‘Unlike the other light weights, Matt is a man of great intellect and substance. He has a great future in politics.’ His comment on Gavin was: ‘Needs to get more substance.’”

Wow. Just, wow.

WE CAN DO IT.