San Francisco candidates debate for Pelosi's seat and legacy

SAN FRANCISCO - California's 11th District Congressional seat, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi's seat, is for grabs after Pelosi coming retirement of 39 years, 8 of them as Speaker of the House. Tonight, the Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People, and other community groups, sponsored a debate Wednesday evening for at least some of the leading candidates. 

Invited candidates only 

Some 200 San Franciscans spent two hours at the San Francisco Hall of Flowers Monday evening listening to the candidates state their positions and answer questions about key issues. 

It was respectful and educating for the voters. "To learn about the candidates. It's been a long time since we've had an open seat here, so I want to do my civic duty and understand the options out here," said debate attendee Colin Higgins. "Nancy has had the seat for 38 years. It's big, big, big shoes to fill, and I want to make sure I vote for the right candidate," said attendee Kate Hanrahan.

Officially, 11 candidates are vying for the seat. But at the Hall of Flowers, only four of them were invited, which bothers qualified candidate Omed Hamid. "All 11 of us should have appeared here so the people, so the San Franciscans have a chance to say, we want this person to be in the primary," said Hamid.

State Senator Scott Wiener touted his record. "I have worked incredibly hard for this community and I have delivered on housing, on healthcare access, on clean energy," said Wiener.

SF Supervisor Connie Chan said, "When Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided not to run for reelection, we said it is time that we stand up and see what we can do to continue to build on her legacy for San Francisco."

Lawyer, entrepreneur and community activist, Marie Hurabiell said, "I'm not an elected official. I have been doing this because I care about this city. Six-and-a-half years, I have been on the ground floor of every major positive movement in this city."

Software engineer and former staff member for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Saikat Chakrabarti, said, "There are insurgent candidates running all over the country challenging the establishment, and they're winning. And, right now we have a chance to change the system."

What are their priorities? 

Each spoke on a number of issues but emphasized their priorities if elected. "Huge focus for me will be investing in our public transportation. I will also focus intensively on reducing the cost of housing and make sure the government is funding the mixed housing that we need," said Wiener.

"As a freshman, my job will be combing through appropriation bills and making sure of there is anything that is truly benefiting that we can bring back to San Francisco. That's what we will do," said Supervisor Chan.

"There's a couple things I want to attack early on. Affordability is one of them and public safety is the other, bringing back dollars from Washington D.C. to hire more police to enhance our public safety," said Hurabiell.

Candidate Chkarabati says he will not play the Congressional seniority game but emulate his mentor, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "When A.O.C. first went into Congress, she built a base of power outside Congress and then leveraged that inside Congress and the effect of that was she got everything she wanted," he said.

What's next:

The June primary will whittle the field down to one or two candidates.