Brown Gives Another Lesson on Survival

About 1 a.m. Wednesday, a scowling Willie Brown pumped his fist at an adoring crowd and, in the manner of “Old Blood and Guts” Gen. George S. Patton, shouted: “We are gonna kick his ass!”

A few longtime friends must have winced and privately thought, Easy, Willie, on the arrogance .

But virtually all the 200 or so followers still celebrating in the Longshoremen’s Hall at that hour cheered and transformed Brown’s face instantly into a beaming, ear-to-ear grin. “Willie, Willie, Willie,” they chanted.

“We must treat the five weeks [before the mayoral runoff] like it’s sudden death in overtime,” the former Assembly Speaker exhorted. Then, drawing out his words for emphasis, he thundered: “I want us to stuff this turkey by Thanksgiving.”

The “turkey” to be stuffed--whose rear Brown vows to kick--is Mayor Frank Jordan. The conventional wisdom is Brown will do precisely that in the Dec. 12 election. And certainly there was nothing about Tuesday’s primary results to cast serious doubt on this thesis.

Brown won the most votes and immediately was endorsed by his strong rival for the liberals’ support, civil rights attorney Roberta Achtenberg. The numbers tell the story: Brown 35%, Jordan 33%, Achtenberg 27%. Jordan--considered a conservative here, although elsewhere he’d be a moderate Democrat--can attract the 3% that went to the race’s only Republican, Chinese American businessman Ben Hom. But after that the pickings get slim.

Brown may be a liberal everywhere else, but in San Francisco he’s a mainstreamer. That will give him a leg up in the runoff. And the fact that over the years he has done more for gays than any other legislator likely will win him the lion’s share of liberal Achtenberg’s gay-based support.

In short, Brown’s toughest fight should now be behind him. By beating Achtenberg and surviving Tuesday, most neutral analysts theorize, he all but won the mayor’s office.

“It’s Jordan (vs.) Brown. It’s the race we have been looking forrrr,” Brown reminded his ecstatic troops. “There won’t be any hiding. Rope-a-dope is over. . . . We’re gonna take this campaign to Jordan like he has never seen [one] before.”

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We all relearned a lesson Tuesday that Willie Brown has been teaching us for many years: Never underestimate this innate politician. Whether it’s fighting for the Assembly speakership, finessing a governor or walking a legal tightrope, he somehow survives.

He survived Tuesday even though Jordan succeeded in his strategy. The mayor’s goal was to switch the voters’ attention from himself--a bumbler in the view of many--and onto wheeler-dealer, “shady” Brown. Indeed, the election did become a referendum on the legendary lawmaker.

Helped by a series of investigative stories in the San Francisco Examiner, Jordan pounded Brown on alleged sins ranging from accepting tobacco political money to defending drug dealers as a private attorney.

Brown’s message, basically, was Trust me--I’m an effective leader who delivers. Voters asked themselves: But who’s he deliver for? Us or his law practice?

On Tuesday, many voters decided Brown would deliver for them. They liked his style--not only the personal flash--but the back-room dealings, his ability to produce within the political system. This city, after all, may be the last bastion of Americans who actually respect government.

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Brown hustled. By his count, he participated in nearly 70 candidate forums, gave almost 800 speeches and shook 60,000 hands. Then the magnetism of his personality attracted hundreds of fiercely loyal volunteers to turn out an unusually high vote in black precincts.

Still, Jordan just might have pulled it off. He might have quashed Brown and forced a runoff with Achtenberg--considered an easier opponent--if the mayor had not jumped naked into the shower with two disc jockey strangers. That dumb stunt resurrected his image of buffoonery. Worse, it dominated news coverage at a time when Achtenberg was surging and might have caught Brown. Her momentum stopped.

On election night, the Brown camp was nervous. Nobody really knew what to expect. Only the candidate himself was truly confident. He lifted spirits by delivering, in essence, a victory speech even before many votes had been counted.

Later, the man seeking to be San Francisco’s first black mayor roared: “I want us to win this election more than I’ve wanted anything in my life.”

If so, then he might shelve the “kick ass” and “stuffed turkey” rhetoric. Certainly, the mayor’s office now seems Willie Brown’s to lose.