Nader to S.F.: Vote for the MUD

Nader to S.F.: Vote for the MUD | October 17, 2001 | SFBG News          
 
TWO-TIME Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader drew a 
huge crowd to Masonic Auditorium Oct. 11 to raise funds for his 
new organization, Democracy Rising, and for the local campaign 
for a municipal utility district, or MUD. Nader was joined on 
stage by Sup. Tom Ammiano, state senator John Burton, Eva 
Patterson of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, and Van 
Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and others. More 
than 2,600 people filled the room. 

From Nader's speech: "The propositions that are up for November 
are being attacked by PG using your money. I saw their signs 
today: 'No on Prop. I – it's costly.' Can you imagine PG saying 
anything about being costly? Thirty-three percent rate increases 
here, 45 percent rate increases here.... 

"Here's what PG's done in just five years: First, they misled the 
state legislature by ramming through that legislative 
deregulation monstrosity on the basis that they were going to 
reduce your rates big time starting with the year 2000. Aren't 
you saving all that money? Then they mismanaged their own 
business, [made it] top-heavy with swollen executive-management 
packages. Then they mismanaged it into bankruptcy. So now they're 
mischaracterizing Proposition I and the other propositions in 
order to try to win." 

When a politician with national attention comes to town to 
support a local ballot initiative, it's big news. The San 
Francisco Examiner knows this and put Nader on the front page 
Oct. 12. But not the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle 
treated the event to a three-paragraph footnote, buried on page 
A10 of the Oct. 13 edition. The story focused on Nader's views on 
civil liberties and completely ignored public power. On Oct. 16 
the Chron finally published a story on the public power 
campaigns, but instead of discussing the issue, the story said 
the measures were going to go down. (Rachel Brahinsky) 

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