Title

Deukmejian, George: Moscone as a political role model

Abstract

George Deukmejian: I would strongly suggest any young person that they try to learn as much as they can about George Moscone – I keep calling him Senator Moscone. He was Mayor Moscone as well – and the way in which he conducted himself because he obviously was an individual who was able to attract a tremendous amount of support from both his constituents and the community where he lived and worked, and also from his colleagues. And recognizing how he prepared himself before going into public office. You don’t have to be a lawyer to go into public office, but it doesn’t hurt – it helps I think – and it helps you to learn how to think, how to determine what the arguments are for the various positions, how to strongly advocate that position and do it effectively and what you have to do in order to attract support not only from the people who might normally support you but also to try to attract people who haven’t made up their minds yet. To do that you have to be very knowledgeable about the subject matter. You have to be able to clearly explain what the arguments are, the positions. You have to provide clarity in those arguments, and an ability to get along well enough with everyone so that people are going to be – even though they might disagree with you – willing to listen to you. And they’re going to give you an opportunity to advocate your position to them. You’ve got to be able to do it in a way that your undecided people would have an open mind and keep an open mind, and then you can perhaps convince them that your position is the proper position. I’d say that anybody who goes into public life that it’d be well to try to learn as much as they can about Mayor Moscone, and to use him as a very excellent role model for somebody who was in public life.

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Type

Interview

Date Original

2010-08-27

Relation

The Moscone oral history interviews are part of the George Moscone Collection, MSS 328.

Contributing Institution

Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives, University of the Pacific Library

Rights Information

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