Ever since Public Defender Jeff Adachi began his push for public pension reform by spearheading a City Charter amendment that would require larger contributions from public employees, people have speculated that he’s using the issue to raise his profile in preparation for a run for mayor. “This is his Care Not Cash,” they say — a reference to the reform initiative that arguably swept Mayor Gavin Newsom into office.
But what if it isn’t Adachi (or just Adachi) who’s using the pension initiative to gear up for a mayoral campaign? The couple donating the lion’s share of funding ($150,000) for Adachi’s campaign to put the pension measure on the November ballot also contributed to Matt Gonzalez’s campaign for mayor in 2003. Soon after that, Gonzalez very publicly came out in favor of Adachi’s proposal — even challenging Tim Paulson of the Labor Council to a public debate on the issue. (Paulson wisely declined.)
Gonzalez has thus distinguished himself as the most high-profile progressive to support pension reform. For some folks who are pro-union but concerned about threatened cuts to city services if our pension obligations aren’t amended, his stance is appealing. He came very close to beating Newsom in the 2003 mayor’s race and may now be coming out of retirement on the issue of pension reform.
ALSO: Check out Art Bruzzone who beat me to the punchline by posting this yesterday.
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