The Bay Area's congressional delegation is turning over:
- Jackie Speier retired from her seat on the northern end of the Peninsula. Growing up in the Bay Area, I had heard an abbreviated version of the "drink the Kool-Aid" story. When trying my hand as a teenager at dragon boat racing in the lake at Leo Ryan Memorial Park, I heard a capsule summary of who he was. And yet, I hadn't fully appreciated the horror or the impact of Jonestown until as an adult I noticed Speier's book in the new book display at the San Mateo Public Library and sped-read it while standing next to the bookshelf.
- Anna Eshoo (who successfully represented Silicon Valley's interests in Congress — and served on the southern end of the Peninsula for so long that I can vaguely recall taking a field trip to her Congressional office in Palo Alto when I was in middle school) has announced her own retirement.
- In San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi now holds the title of speaker emerita and is inching toward her own retirement. (One upside of this is that it's keeping Scott Wiener — the most likely candidate to replace Pelosi in D.C. — in the State Senate in Sacramento for longer, where he can continue to tackle California's housing, transportation, and healthcare challenges on our behalf.)
- In the East Bay, the progressive icon Barbara Lee is not running for the Congressional seat she's held since 1998 and has instead tried to run for Senate.
It's in the context of the Bay Area's powerful, experienced, and female Congressional representatives departing that Alameda's vice mayor Tony Daysog is running for Congress himself.
The Alameda County Registrar of Voters is still counting ballots from Tuesday's election. The top two vote-getters in this race will advance to the general election in November — here's what the counts are looking like:
According to the Alameda Post, the day after the election:
[Tony Daysog] issued a statement saying, “what Congressmember Barbara Lee said last night bears repeating as it is applicable to my situation: ‘Part of the process is allowing the time for every ballot cast—every voice—to be counted.’”
Barbara Lee speaks for [Tony]!
But, leaving aside my little attempt at wittiness to adjust that slogan, Lee actually endorsed Lateefah Simon in this Democratic Party.
And whether the final count of primary votes shows Jennifer Tran (a CSU East Bay professor with some experience with some Oakland non-profits) or Tony Daysog in 2nd place, Lateefah Simon's great lead suggests that she's well on her way to winning the general election in November — and becoming part of the Bay Area's next generation of powerful, experienced, and female Congressional representatives.