At 6 PM Pacific today (Saturday), Savage Joy of the Real Progressives site* will hold a debate among three Democratic challengers to Nancy Pelosi for San Francisco’s CA-12 congressional seat:
Agatha Bacelar
Shahid Buttar
Tom Gallagher
Rep. Pelosi was invited to the debate but didn’t respond. From the available information, it’s a little unclear which platform will have the debate live, YouTube or Facebook, perhaps the latter or both.
I hope all San Franciscans in the district and those beyond interested in the race will tune in live or watch the recording. In California’s (terrible) “top 2” system for state and congressional elections, there is a March 3rd “primary” election among all candidates, and then two highest vote-getters advance to the “general” election in November. Really it’s a March jungle election with a November runoff. It’s a given that Pelosi will take the most votes in March. So for there to be a viable challenge to Pelosi from the left come November, voters who support said challenge will need to largely get behind one candidate for the March jungle election. In effect, at least until we can replace top 2 with a system that respects freedom of association, we need a Democratic “pre-primary.” Otherwise what happened last time, when the leftist Democratic challengers split the vote and a Republican candidate secured the second November spot, could repeat.
Whatever one thinks of Rep. Pelosi’s performance as representative and Speaker of the House, no one is entitled to an elected office. We aren’t supposed to do royalty in the USA. The March and November elections are in fact elections, so may the best candidate win.
Personally, I thought that Rep. Pelosi did a reasonable job with standing up to the prez in the Jan./Feb. federal government shutdown, with (temporarily) withholding the invitation to give the State of the Union address, and with past acts like marshaling votes on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and keeping the Speaker’s gavel out of the hands of Democrats more conservative than her. On the whole, especially in such a safe Democratic district, I would hope to elect a representative who would much more forcefully champion leftist economic, foreign policy, and human rights causes and far more aggressively wield the House’s formidable powers to advance them. As just a couple of examples, the House Democrats’ promise and then failure to attach protections for DREAMers to must-pass spending legislation in late 2017/early 2018 was tragic, and Pelosi’s both overt and behind-the-scenes opposition to impeachment efforts I believe violated her oath to the Constitution and made the country more vulnerable to rising fascism. Additionally, that she pushed through a vote to fund actual concentration camps was catastrophic. It’s entirely legitimate to see if the district can obtain new representation.
I briefly got to meet Ms. Bacelar, whose career is in digital media and design for advocacy, at an activist meeting and was impressed by her engagement and seriousness. I met Mr. Buttar, an accomplished organizer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, at an impeachment protest and was likewise impressed by his focus, energy, and priorities. I haven’t had a chance to meet Mr. Gallagher, a longtime peace activist and former Massachusetts state legislator.
Please do tune in, and I hope to see more spirited campaigning in this race and more posts about it from those who get involved.
Relevant article:
Progressive Pelosi Challengers Agree To Debate As Momentum To Unseat The Speaker Builds
By Eric Oetker, bandr media, July 28, 2019
* This post isn’t an endorsement one way or another of the Real Progressives site, it’s to spread word about the debate.