I hope that the positive effect of the Gonzalez campaign will be that more people will be interested in politics and pay attention to issues 24/7. There really should be more than 15% of the population of the city and county of San Francisco deciding the future of this great place.

But already the pundits are weighing in and saying that the energy created by the progressive party campaign won't last; Despite loss, Gonzalez remains hopeful.

But look at Tom Ammiano and what happened to him after his 1999 run for mayor. Ammiano was a write-in candidate, talk about serious grass roots, but where is he now - he's still around but hardly influential.

Politics like life is a slog. I give credit to the Newsome campaign because they've been at this since Care not Cash. They were organized, and they worked really hard. I don't expect those suppporters and organizers to go away.

I went to his first campaign rally, and the guy definitely has something. I'm not even sure what it is, but he's definitely got his own kind of political charisma. I've been down to the Newsome campaign HQ for volunteer meetings, and his people have high hopes for him.

They were talking even Governor of the state, and those people were serious and probably started planning their long term strategy from day 1 of Care not Cash. Newsom's people are taking a page out of the GOP winning playbook. They know that politics is a long term process that can take years to have any success. They say Bill Clinton has presidential ambitions in his mind in college.

It's the tortoise and the hare story all over again. The tortoise is slow, but it wins the race. Much of life is like a tortoise race. They say writing is like a tortoise race. Writing is a slog, and you can work for years and years without any hope of success. Those writers who are successful are the ones who've been working day after day, day in day out, with their attention always on the long term result.

The progressives have some great deas, and I hope they keep at it. We need everyone's ideas and energy to make the city a better place. Only time will tell.

Another disturbing factor that was brought out in post-election coverage was the number of people actually voting.

There are about 750,000 people who live in San Francisco. Of that number, about 466,000+ are registered to vote which is about 50%. But in any given election, only about 200,000+ people actually vote which is about 25%+ of total population.

A political consultant was on a program saying that a candidate doesn't have to appeal to all the voters, but just to the 25% or so who actually vote. And of that 25% of the population who vote, the candidate needs to really just reach 50% plus one to win an election.

That's sad. Any candidate running in San Francisco has to appeal to only 110,000+ people to get elected which is about 15% of the population.

15% of the population of the city decides how the place will be run. What a sad comment on our voting process. It's like those 80/20 rules isn't it?

Here's a couple of interesting points that I've now heard twice about the SF Mayor's race.

Anyone running against Newsome would have automatically gotten 42% of the vote. Apparently Ammiano back in 1999 received the same amount. So if it was Leal, Ammiano, even Aliotio running against Newsome, wouldn't gotten 42% of the vote.

5 percentage points that went to Gonzalez was due to a Willie Brown backlash. There was so much hatred of Willie Brown, that there were people in San Francisco who wouldn't have voted for Newsome just because Willie Brown endorsed him.

Pundits are also saying that many people are tired of the Demo party machine, and that weariness brought The Gropenator (new term for Arnie courtesy of Bernie Ward) the Cali Republic's governor seat, and brought many votes to Gonzalez.

It makes you wonder that if there wasn't the Willie Brown factor, would Newsome have won by 12 percentage points as did Kamala Harris in the DA's race.

The big loser is the San Francisco Bay Guardian. They endorsed Hallinan and Gonzalez and lost on both endorsements.

I was listening to all the post-election night coverage, because I love politican spin and I wanted to see how this election would be spun.

The funniest bit I heard, and perhaps this is indicative of the intelligence of the Green Party campaign, was the Green Party saying that they were going to go after Newsom's supervisor seat.

Newsom ran in the Marina district, which is a yuppie enclave with one of the highest per capita median income levels in the districts. Most people there are conservative, and I would even venture to say many of them are republicans as well. Marina people and their self-centered, rich and selfish ways are the butt of many inside SF jokes.

How the Green Party thinks they're going to take the Marina is something only they know.

If the Greens do get a supervisor to win the Marina district, then I think the Demo party in San Francisco has something to seriously worry about. But I think not.