Nancy Pelosi, Like Paul Ryan, Needs A Serious Reelection Challenge-- Meet Stephen Jaffe

Nancy Pelosi used to be my own member of Congress. She was a lot more progressive-- even forcefully so, back then-- than my current member of Congress, her New Dem ally and former Blue Dog Adam Schiff. I used to vote for her regularly. Except for the first time he ran, I never voted for Adam. I never thought the day would come when I would urge my friends in San Francisco to vote against Pelosi. But this anti-Choice, pro-Blue Dog stand of hers and her puppet Ben Ray Lujan's was the last straw for me. And she happens to have an excellent primary opponent this time in Stephen Jaffe. He's running on Medicare-for-All, fair taxation, a cost-of-living adjusted $15 living wage, strengthening Roe v Wade, reforming immigration policy, guaranteeing LGBTQIA rights, public financing of political campaigns, the abolition of private prisons, guaranteeing net neutrality, and a pretty comprehensive Berniecrat type of program. In fact, when Veterans for Bernie endorsed him last week, the organization's statement read, "Americans are sick of status quo politicians like Nancy Pelosi, who decades ago moved to Washington, D.C. only to lose complete touch with reality. No one is more fed up than military veterans who have faced the brunt of nearly 20 years of nonstop war. To his great credit, Stephen Jaffe has put forth the most comprehensive Veterans platform seen to date, one that Pelosi has had years to implement but failed to even try. No longer will we be taken for granted by lazy career politicians!  For his strong support of military veterans and citizens alike, Stephen Jaffe has earned the endorsement of our national membership to become the next Congressman of California's Twelfth District."

Stephen is an attorney and lifelong Democrat. He recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America. A 47-year resident of San Francisco, Stephen practices employment law for employees only, fighting for the rights of San Franciscans of virtually every class protected by law: race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation and/or self-identification, marital status, whistleblowers, and victims of unlawful retaliation.

I asked Stephen to introduce himself today by explaining the dynamics of this tricky primary, which, ironically, sounded to me not that different, in some ways, from the race to end Paul Ryan's time in Congress.

Why Nancy Pelosi's Time In Congress Has Passed
-by Stephen Jaffe

Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress 30 years. After her first election, she has never faced serious opposition from within her own party. The closest anyone has ever challenged her was in 2016 when a third-party candidate received just under 20% of the vote. Ms. Pelosi got the other 80%.

Although Ms. Pelosi holds the office of Member of Congress for the 12th District of California, she has long been a national political figure as Speaker of the House and Minority Leader. In the recent past, she has become out of touch and disconnected from her constituents-- the people who elected her fifteen times-- fourteen times with no serious opposition-- the people of San Francisco. Here are examples of our differences on three critical issues:

• San Francisco voters overwhelmingly support a single payer healthcare (“Medicare for all); Ms. Pelosi not only opposes it-- she affirmatively blocks it. She refuses to cosponsor HR 676-- the Conyers bill for federal single payer healthcare presently pending in the House. As California’s Democratic leader, she also refused to endorse California state Senate bill SB 562, for single payer healthcare. Ms. Pelosi’s lack of support of single payer healthcare is understandable. She gets millions of dollars in political donations from corporate interests who have strong stakes preventing single payer health care from ever becoming law, such as health insurance companies, medical providers and Big Pharma.

• I advocate the abolition of superdelegates in the Democratic Party presidential nomination process. Ms. Pelosi-- who is a herself superdelegate-- opposes this reform. Superdelegates are undemocratic with a big “D” and little “d.” Democratic voter who vote in presidential primary elections do so with the reasonable expectation that their votes will matter. However, the DNC and Democratic establishment recently argued in court that they have a legal right to rig the primaries and select presidential candidates in back room deals. The leaked DNC emails prove the DNC indeed rigged the presidential nomination in favor of Hillary Clinton. The Party must be cleansed of its corruption and returned to its historic mission of helping working people, the poor, the disabled and the most unfortunate among us.

• I oppose anything which harms the environment. I oppose the natural gas extraction process known as “fracking” which devastates the environment and can cause earthquakes. But Ms. Pelosi does not oppose a ban on fracking. I favor the strong support and the full funding of the EPA, the reduction and elimination of fossil fuels, coal and other “dirty” energy, and the development of all forms of alternative energy, including solar power, wind turbines and harnessing the tides.

The people of San Francisco deserve a representative who is one of their own-- a progressive Democrat who shares their values, ideals and dreams-- not by a one percenter who has lost touch with them and cannot relate to their lives.