Matt Haney = The Blob?
"Matt Haney (is) the Amorphous Blob."
- San Francisco Standard, April 19, 2022, quoting political consultant David Latterman
"There's some resemblance, but no - it's not Matt."
- Bill Shireman, anti-blob candidate, quoting himself
Written by Josh Koehn Published Apr. 19, 2022 at 9:07pm
Supervisor Matt Haney rebranded himself from a San Francisco progressive to something more moderate….
“He has run away from his super-left record,” said David Letterman, a Bay Area political consultant with two decades of experience. “While it is true that he is kind of the amorphous blob that he is, he’s not a dyed-in-the-wool progressive. He’s been able to say enough things to moderates … to make them happy.”
Haney … benefited from $1.7 million in spending by independent expenditure committees …. That avalanche of outside spending shouldn’t be discounted…. His legacy will largely depend on his ability to follow through on his newly crafted image and author transformative policy to address California’s housing crisis.
Is Matt Haney the Amorphous Blob? No, but he is a product of it.
That’s understandable. Nearly all talented politicians need to pay homage to the Blob, and govern the best they can, within its limits, until they retire and take a job inside the Blob.
The Blob is an amorphous amalgam of power brokers, thousands of them, who build careers inside our democracy, by protecting vested interests they mostly support, and charging retainers for the laws, rules, and contracts they help deliver to their clients.
Matt is a solid young politician looking forward to a successful career.
He speaks to center left and right voters - about smash-and-grab, violent crime, declining schools, and homeless encampments. But he won’t be able to do much about those problems. He is hemmed in by the Amorphous Blob.
One thing he can support is building projects, especially big expensive ones. He supports the Builders and Realtors, and they support him, because we need more housing - we really do. Their millions to elect him could generate billions for new buildings.
That is kind of good, given current political realities. We need our vested interests to build some of the housing we need. But it’s dangerous to depend on them.
Matt Haney supports status quo remedies that empower his donors, maintain the status quo, play well to reporters, and don’t completely offend progressives.
The problem is, he can’t deliver the systemic solutions we need. That requires understanding The Blob. Neither serving nor destroying it, but gently redirecting the selfish dictates of every institution inside it, and reawakening the higher aspirations of every individual who represents them.
I don’t expect a majority of voters to understand that yet. But I do expect you to. You’ve read this far. You know how politics works. How social media sells fear, promotes idiots, and entrenches power. How lobbyists milk their clients, to milk us, to milk them back. You’re frustrated. You see things falling apart. But you haven’t given up hope.
Here’s a secret I’m only telling you. I expect to win. Not by getting the most votes for the dollars I spend. But by getting the most change. If you spend your vote on me, I promise you change.