Pelosi's hometown disputes liberal image

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Gay weddings in the U.S. Capitol. Hippie gatherings on the Mall. Hempfest along the Potomac. Republican campaign strategists have evoked such images to mock the Democrats and especially San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi, who has represented Babylon by the Bay since 1987 and now stands poised to become speaker of the House.

But in the district where Pelosi was re-elected Tuesday with more than 80 percent of the vote, constituents say that Middle America has nothing to fear from San Francisco and that the city has more variety than its most colorful elements might suggest.

"They think we are tree-huggers and granola eaters," Mary Graves, 47, a self-described mainstream Democrat, said with a laugh. "I explain that I'm just tolerant and love diversity and having everyone get along and respect each other."

San Francisco is, without a doubt, the nation's unofficial gay capital and a bastion of the far left and the radical fringe. But it is also the home of cutting-edge businesses, rich Internet entrepreneurs and other buccaneering capitalists, and a monied class that thrives on fine dining and the arts.

The results of Tuesday's municipal election, in which Pelosi's Republican challenger got more votes than the Green Party candidate, capture San Francisco's political complexity. Residents approved a measure requiring employers to provide sick pay to hourly workers. But they rejected a proposal to raise taxes on parking garages.

Aaron Peskin, president of the city Board of Supervisors, said San Francisco has such ethnic, cultural and political diversity that its elected officials must be masters of consensus-building.

"The kinds of skills you need to be an effective decision-maker on the local level in San Francisco -- having to compromise between various constituencies -- makes someone very well situated for doing that in our nation's capital," he said of Pelosi.

Pelosi, a 66-year-old mother of five who is married to an investment banker, occupies the middle ground of San Francisco politics. California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, also from the Bay Area, respectively stand to Pelosi's right and left.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, President Reagan's foreign policy adviser and a former U.N. ambassador, is said to have coined the "San Francisco liberal" label in 1984. Addressing the Republican National Convention, she accused San Francisco Democrats of pulling the party too far to the left and not aggressively fighting communism.

More recently, the San Francisco area's embrace of gay marriage, medical marijuana and the anti-war movement reinforced the city's image as a loopy place out of sync with the rest of America.

That's ironic, said Richard DeLeon, professor emeritus of political science at San Francisco State University.

"The values of the American creed -- individuality, liberty, free speech, democracy and at least the aspiration of equality -- can be expressed and experienced in San Francisco to an extent that's hard to find elsewhere," said DeLeon, who first came here during the 1967 Summer of Love. "San Francisco isn't un-American. America has become less American, with a retreat from civil liberties and, in the White House, suppressive policies and pre-emptive war."

Despite its perception as being on the fringe, the Bay Area plays a central role in the national and global economy; entrepreneurship is encouraged and richly rewarded.

Silicon Valley gets more venture capital funding than any other region in the world, and companies here set the pace for workplace trends such as casual dress, telecommuting and stock option compensation.

"San Francisco is a place where ideas are accepted and heard," said Sharon Miller, chief executive of Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, a nonprofit that trains people who want to open their own businesses. "We're known for innovation -- and for supporting innovation."

Arianna Orleans, 35, a professor of English and a married mother of a 15-month-old boy in San Francisco, wondered why many Americans see the city as unaligned with "family values."

"I want to raise my child in San Francisco because that I feel that here he'll see examples of all kinds of people, and he'll know that all those different choices are valid," Orleans said. "Whether he wants to wear tie-dye or khakis -- that's valid, and there will probably be lots of other people making the same choices who are valuable, respected members of his community."