Matt Gonzalez - An Unorthodox Politician

An Unorthodox Politician

Newspaper accounts from the San Francisco mayoral election noted that Gonzalez slept on the uncushioned slats of a futon frame because "it's more comfortable," wore Doc Martens shoes and baggy suits (some of which were given him by former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos), and did not wear a watch, even though he owned a Rolex given him by his father. The "floppy-haired, slump-shouldered champion of the counterculture," as the Christian Science Monitor called him, is not married and owns no real property. He gave away his 1967 Mercedes-Benz sedan because, he said, he found it easier to get around on public transportation.

Gonzalez irked his progressive allies and public-sector employees in San Francisco by standing alongside Ron Paul, a Republican libertarian congressman, and Tony Hall, a conservative former city councilman in San Francisco, in supporting a ballot proposition in San Francisco that would have required city workers to pay more into their own pension funds.

He is fond of chess and poetry. In 1997, at his own expense, he published a collection of poetry by Beat poet Jack Micheline called Sixty-Seven Poems for Downtrodden Saints. He served on the Board of Directors for Intersection for the Arts, a non-profit organization, and in 2004 taught a course called "Art & Politics" at the San Francisco Art Institute. Gonzalez played bass guitar in a rock band (called John Heartfield) and still plays occasionally with his brother Chuck and his law partner Whitney Leigh.

In addition to supporting artists and collecting, Gonzalez creates art himself in the form of collages. In April 2011, he and fellow artist Tom Schultz presented their work in a month-long exhibition.