During her nearly two decades as a state legislator, first as an assemblywoman and then as a senator, Jackie Speier proved to be a strong backer of LGBT rights. During San Francisco's "Winter of Love" in 2004, Speier could be found inside City Hall marrying same-sex couples.
Now running for the congressional seat left vacant after the death of Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), Speier, 57, is counting on the 12th District's LGBT voters as she runs in a special election April 8 to serve out the remainder of Lantos's term through next January. Lantos died in February from esophageal cancer.
"I married somewhere between 18 to 20 couples [that] February. I really established that I am not a person of words but a person of action," said Speier during a meeting with the Bay Area Reporter 's editorial board last week. "I believe in equal rights for all people."
The 12th Congressional District stretches into parts of San Francisco that are heavily concentrated with LGBT voters, including portions of Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, and Twin Peaks. It also covers the city's West Portal, Forest Hills, and inner Sunset neighborhoods, as well as the University of California, San Francisco's Parnassus location and San Francisco State University's sprawling main campus.
Speier has the backing of gay politicians Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco); San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Bevan Dufty; and San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon. Both the Harvey Milk and the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic clubs have endorsed her in the race.
Openly gay South San Francisco commissioner Robert Bernardo said he is "totally supportive" of Speier in the race.
"She's been a longtime ally for LGBT people," said Bernardo.
Speier supports repealing the anti-gay Defense on Marriage Act as well as allowing gay members of the military to serve openly. She said the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was "flawed from the beginning. We should get rid of it."
On the controversial stance congressional Democrats have taken with pushing an Employment Non-Discrimination Act stripped of gender identity protections, Speier hues to the party line. She said she supports passing the gay-only ENDA now while pushing to add transgender protections to the bill later.
"I do support an inclusive version but the question becomes would you not support one for gays and lesbians. I would not throw the baby out with the bath water," said Speier. "I would support a fully inclusive ENDA but also vote on the gay and lesbian only ENDA."
Speier is facing off against four other candidates in next week's open primary: Republicans Mike Moloney, a retired businessman from Foster City, and Atherton businessman and accountant Greg Conlon, who lost his 2002 state treasurer bid against Phil Angelides; Green Party member and former Castro merchant Barry Hermanson; and fellow Democrat Michelle McMurry, a San Francisco physician and health policy analyst.
According to election rules, should any of the five win more than half the votes they will be declared the winner. If no one garners a majority of the votes, then the top two vote getters will face off on the June 3 primary ballot.
Should that happen, they would find themselves on the same ballot with the primary races to compete for the full 2009-2010 term on the November ballot. In those party-based contests, Speier is matched up against not only McMurry, but also businessman Robert Barrows of San Mateo County and San Francisco accountant Frank Henry Wade.
Due to the district's heavy Democratic makeup, Speier is considered the odds-on favorite to replace Lantos, who endorsed her candidacy prior to his death. But Speier said she is not taking anything for granted, especially with Conlon rallying Republicans with the message that the special election gives them a rare opportunity to capture the seat.
Should his strategy be successful, he would then be able to run as the incumbent in the June election.
"I am running like it is a very serious race," said Speier. "I am not taking anything for granted."
Speier said she has raised about $600,000 for the race so far.
She previously ran for the seat during a special election in 1979 to replace her boss Congressman Leo Ryan. Ryan was killed at the airport in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978 as he was leading a fact-finding mission to investigate the People's Temple. Speier was shot five times and left for dead on the tarmac.
As she lay in an iron lung-like contraption to rid her body of a life-threatening bacterial infection in a Baltimore hospital, Speier learned from a doctor of the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk.
"I was struggling for my life. I thought the world was coming to an end," recalled Speier, who pulled through and filed to run in the election, in which she finished in third.
She went on to win election to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and then to the statehouse. Termed out of the Senate in 2006, she lost her bid for lieutenant governor to John Garamendi in the Democratic primary. Since then she co-authored the book This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down and joined the law firm of Hanson Bridgett LLP, in San Francisco.
Now she is ready to bring her California values to Washington.
"I think we are in deeply troubling times, not only internationally but nationally," said Speier. "We can't have people in Congress asleep at the switch or paralyzed to flip the switch when there are signs of deep, troubling waters. I have a reputation of being strong and tough on issues. I am willing and ready to take on the strong and tough issues."