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Last Updated June 10, 2005
On February 20, 1915, Governor Hiram Johnson and Mayor James Rolph led 150,000 people onto the grounds of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to see the Spanish-Italian baroque style building built on reclaimed land in what became San Francisco's Marina district. The Exposition ostensibly celebrated the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was clearly intended to show off San Francisco's recovery from the 1906 earthquake. It also spotlighted San Francisco as the central focus of an America that was becoming, with its acquisition of Hawaii and the Philippines and its interest in an open-door policy with China and trade with Japan, a power in the Pacific. The Exposition set the physical style of San Francisco: It encouraged the use of Mediterranean color, accent and detail that characterizes most post-Victorian houses and commercial structures in The City (as the San Francisco Examiner called it for years). It created the picturesque Marina district, whose old buildings were among those damaged in the 1989 earthquake, and today's tourist waterfront around Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. This San Francisco has many facets: On a sunny day it looks almost tropical, with brown mountains baking in the sun and light shining off the pastel stucco buildings; when the clouds scud in from the Pacific, it can look sinister, full of dark corners where a private detective's partner might be ambushed by a pretty girl. The buildings can be majestic, like the monumental Beaux Arts City Hall, or tawdry, like the hotels of the Tenderloin; it is a city that looks exotic at first but, when you look closely, can only be American. San Francisco has been a dynamic city, capable of great growth, carrying the American tradition of tolerance of diversity to new lengths; it grew from nothing to a major city in the single year of 1850; its American origins are obvious from the regular grids of streets named after politicians and local developers. The San Francisco of 1915 was proud of the writers who had flourished there--Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris--and of the hometown traditions of the arts and crafts movement, just as San Francisco later would have a Herb Caen-ish pride in the beats of the 1950s North Beach, the hippies who thronged Haight-Ashbury in 1967, and the gays of Castro in the 1970s and since. Over the years, the city's booming economy, based initially on food processing, but now on finance, high-tech and clothing (Levi Strauss, The Gap) attracted talented newcomers, weighted increasingly toward those who find its liberation-minded cultural attitudes congenial. Politically, San Francisco was a progressive Republican town, like the two men who led the way into the Exposition. The sour-tempered Hiram Johnson made his name as a reformer throwing out crooked city politicians; his administration gave California primary elections, referenda and recall, and strong civil service laws. "Sunny Jim" Rolph, mayor from 1911-30 and then governor, built the civic center, parks, schools, streetcars and the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct--the antique infrastructure of San Francisco today. Sympathetic to the conservation movement, willing to deal with organized labor in a union town that had America's only general strike in 1934, tolerant of the diversity of California, these progressive Republicans were the recognizable ancestors of, though certainly not identical to, the latter-day San Franciscans who became increasingly liberal and even radical. But San Francisco's hipness can be overstated. For if its distinctive style attracted liberal singles and gays in increasing numbers, its economic dynamism on the Pacific Rim has attracted Asians--as indeed San Francisco did from 1850 until immigration was shut off by the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The city has elected strong liberal politicians--notably, Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot to death in 1978 by a political opponent who was acquitted of murder by a liberal jury on the bizarre theory that he had been crazed by junk food. Over the next decade, the city's cultural liberalism was tempered by Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who vetoed a same-sex marriage ordinance and opposed commercial rent control. In 1995, Willie Brown, ousted after 15 years as speaker of the Assembly, returned home and was elected mayor. After reaping admiring publicity following his takeover of the office, Brown's record turned dismal. While the affluent neighborhoods were enriched with new Silicon Valley millionaires, the Chinese, Filipino and other Asian immigrants in the southern and western parts of the city were beleaguered by high taxes that supported the pampered public employee unions. He won praise for Operation Scrub Down to clean the downtown streets. After sparking protests for his crackdown on the homeless, the term-limited Brown stepped down in 2003. As his successor, San Francisco passed over the radical Matt Gonzalez and installed Gavin Newsom, who in February 2004 started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, more than 4,000 in all, although California voters outlawed same-sex marriage and the courts declined to overturn that law. The state Supreme Court ordered him to stop after a month, and later declared that Newsom had exceeded his authority and that the marriages were "void and of no legal effect from their inception." The 8th Congressional District of California takes in four-fifths of San Francisco, all but the southwest corner. It includes all of San Francisco's high-rise downtown, the crowded and bustling Chinatown, Telegraph, Nob and Russian Hills, North Beach (which was once really a beach), Pacific Heights (which is still on heights) and the Marina District (which does not have a very big marina). In the valleys are the mostly black Fillmore and Western Addition areas; the 8th is 9% black, 16% Hispanic and 29% Asian--the second highest Asian percentage of any district outside Hawaii. The 8th also has the gay Castro district and Noe Valley, Haight-Ashbury, once the bedraggled center of hippiedom and now another yup-and-coming San Francisco neighborhood, and Portrero Hill with its restored houses overlooking downtown. Farther south are the old residential areas overlooking I-280, with pastel houses strewn along grid streets that hug the steep hills. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic and voted 85%-14% for John Kerry in 2004. The 8th District is represented by Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat with deep political roots and enormous ambition, who was first elected in June 1987 and is now the House minority leader. She has the energy and shrewdness of one who has handled the most delicate political chores, and the charm and unflappability of one who is the mother of five children. Pelosi grew up in Maryland; her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, served in the House from 1939-47 and was mayor of Baltimore for 12 years after that, and her brother, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was mayor from 1967 to 1971. Married to a successful San Francisco businessman, she was California Democratic Party chairman in the early 1980s. Since the 1960s, San Francisco's congressional politics were dominated by Phillip Burton, an old-fashioned labor-liberal Democrat. But Burton died in 1983 and his widow Sala, elected to succeed him, died in 1987. With deathbed encouragement from Sala Burton, Pelosi ran and won 35%-31% in the special against gay supervisor Harry Britt. Pelosi has taken the lead on important issues of local sensitivity. One is human rights, especially in China. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, she sponsored an amendment to give Chinese students the right to remain in the United States; George H.W. Bush vetoed it. In 1991 she became the lead sponsor of the bill to condition China's Most Favored Nation status on human rights reforms; the House overrode Bush's veto but it was upheld in the Senate. After that, Pelosi led the annual fight against normal trade relations and sharply criticized China. She said that Bill Clinton was either in denial or ill-informed about what's going on in China. When Clinton in 1999 agreed to terms for China's entry into the World Trade Organization, Pelosi led even more furious opposition to normal trade relations with China. Although bitter about the setbacks, she vowed to maintain her human rights vigil. She has done all this at some political risk: Pelosi's position is by no means universally popular with Asian Americans in her district; many think the U.S. should trade and negotiate quietly with China. One of her chief adversaries on the issue is her San Francisco neighbor, Senator Dianne Feinstein; their houses are just a few blocks apart. In addition to working with some Republicans on China, she usually cooperated with chairman Porter Goss as the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, especially after the September 11 attacks. She joined in the committee's report that, while the intelligence community did not have specific evidence in advance, it did have information that was clearly relevant to the attacks, particularly when considered for its collective significance. On other issues Pelosi has an almost perfectly liberal voting record. She has worked to restore welfare for legal immigrants, and has supported needle exchanges for HIV/AIDS prevention. She has been a leader in encouraging family planning and environmental protection overseas. At home, Pelosi has been reelected by huge margins. Her move into the leadership was persistent, shrewd and well-organized. In hopes that Democrats would regain House control in 2000, she ran a vigorous campaign against Steny Hoyer to become majority whip--raising more than $3 million for her party's candidates. Although she was not running "as a woman," she said, "the fact that I am a woman is an enhancement because we absolutely must have diversity in the leadership." Unfortunately for Democrats and Pelosi, Republicans kept control and Tom DeLay remained majority whip. When David Bonior decided in 2001 to run for governor of Michigan and step down as minority whip, Pelosi and Hoyer ran leadership campaigns again, this time in a real contest. Pelosi said that Democrats needed to refocus on grassroots organization, money and message. Supporters played up her potential to become a celebrity--"a glamorous grandmother who knocks people off their feet," as Hawaii's Neil Abercrombie put it. With nearly unanimous support from the 32 California Democrats, and showing that she knew how to whip and count her supporters, Pelosi won by a convincing 118-95. As whip, Pelosi moved quickly to assert herself, sometimes independently from Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. She sparked controversy when she contributed $10,000 to Representative Lynn Rivers in a redistricting-forced Michigan primary against John Dingell--the ranking Democrat on Energy and Commerce, who had been a strong supporter of Hoyer for whip. Normally, party leaders do not take sides in such elections. Dingell handily won the primary. Her biggest conflict came in fall 2002 when she actively encouraged opponents of the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, which Gephardt had enthusiastically endorsed with George W. Bush at the White House. Pelosi contended that supporters had not made the case for using force, and that she had seen no evidence that Iraq "poses an imminent threat to our nation." To the surprise of many, her efforts helped win 126 Democratic votes against the resolution, while only 81 backed the position of Gephardt, which also was backed by Democratic Caucus chairman Martin Frost. In retrospect, that split signaled the transition in the caucus. Once the disappointing 2002 election results were in and Gephardt said that he was stepping down, Pelosi had all but locked up the support of a majority of the caucus. Frost announced his candidacy with warnings that the selection of Pelosi might create a "permanent minority party;" he withdrew from the contest a day later, conceding that he could not win. Harold Ford made a belated, quixotic bid designed to appeal to a combination of blacks and New Democrats, but Pelosi won 177-29. As Democratic leader in the House, she brought a burst of energy--and favorable press coverage--to a party that badly needed it. She showed hands-on management in selecting members for House committee vacancies and developing a Democratic message designed to highlight the shortcomings of the Bush agenda. There were bruised feelings over some committee assignments, but even allies of Hoyer and Frost credited her with bringing a breath of fresh air and enthusiasm to party deliberations. As Republicans pressed their agenda, Pelosi declared that Democrats would take "a party position" in opposition to the Republican Medicare/prescription drug bill. But 16 Democrats voted for the final deal in November 2003, providing the critical margin for passage; she was largely silent about the renegades, many of whom were responding to local pressures. This was a painful lesson for Pelosi in the limited power of the minority leader in the House. She called President Bush an "incompetent" leader for his handling of the war in Iraq. Working with Robert Matsui as chairman of the DCCC, she tirelessly traveled the country raising money and boosting local candidates. If she became Speaker, Pelosi pledged, she would reform the House to give a greater voice to all members and assure fairness. She cited Democratic gains of open seats in Kentucky and South Dakota in special elections in early 2004 as proof that the political tide was turning their way. But the three-seat loss in the November election turned out to be yet another crushing disappointment for House Democrats, though Pelosi noted that they won a net gain apart from the effects of the 2003 Texas redistricting. She also cast some of the blame on the presidential campaign of John Kerry. That increased the personal stakes for Pelosi in the 2006 election; historically, opposition parties have usually gained seats in offyear elections, though that was not the case in 1998 and 2002. In early 2005, she firmly insisted that House Democrats would not sit down with Republicans on Social Security until they removed personal retirement accounts from discussion.
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