Do Third-Party Candidates Make a Difference? - Matt Gonzalez June 17, 2008

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/05/14/Meet_the_Candidate_Matt_Gonzalez

Independent Vice Presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez discusses the history of third parties in America, arguing that these groups have been instrumental in promoting social change.

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As president of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, Gonzalez helped to install rank-choice voting and raise the San Francisco minimum wage.

In 2003, he ran for San Francisco mayor in a controversial election, just barely losing to Gavin Newsom - The Commonwealth Club of California

Matt Gonzalez was born in McAllen, Texas in 1965. He received a BA degree from Columbia College, Columbia University, 1987, and a JD from Stanford Law School in 1990. He worked as a deputy public defender in San Francisco from 1991-2000. In 2000 he was elected to the 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which supervises a city with a budget of $6 billion.

He is best known for having led the effort to implement Instant Run-off Voting, also known as Rank Choice Voting, in San Francisco, where it has been successfully implemented to obtain a majority outcome without the need for costly run-off elections. Matt Gonzalez is a 2008 Vice Presidential Candidate running with Ralph Nader.