S3 E1: Congressional Candidates! Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2026! Richie and Erica are back, discussing the Congressional candidate forum held Wednesday, January 8th, 2026. Scott Wiener, Connie Chan and Saikat Chakrabarti took the stage and unloaded their far-left Progressive ideology for all other hear.  They're running to succeed Nancy Pelosi. 

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Transcript

Season 3 Episode 1

Really, San Francisco? Podcast

Congressional Candidates Forum

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Richie Greenberg: Happy New Year, everybody, and this is really San Francisco, and it is January 2026. I keep forgetting to write 2026, I still put 2025 on all my letters and stuff, and…

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Richie Greenberg: Welcome, everyone, and I'm Richie Greenberg in studio, and here is lovely and charming co-host Erica Sandberg. Say hello, Erica.

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Erica Sandberg: Well, hello everybody, and so good to be here in this beautiful city of ours.

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Richie Greenberg: And before we jump into today's topic, we have a bit of information about what we plan to do now with Really San Francisco. The podcast, and other… let's, let's talk a little bit about that quickly.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah, definitely. We're gonna be having a new logo, we're gonna make sure that a podcast does go out once a week, minimum, so that you know that you'll always get some really great information, some entertaining conversation.

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Erica Sandberg: When you expect it, which is really great. And also, I want to say, really, San Francisco is obviously about us here in the 415, but every city, every community has some absurd, crazy, fun, and funny

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Erica Sandberg: interesting and horrifying things that happen within your space as well. So we really do welcome people from all over the country, all over the world. We like to share what's happening here, but we know

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Erica Sandberg: that what's going on in your place is also an equally fascinating. So, welcome, everybody. This is a global… I would say this is a global podcast.

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Richie Greenberg: It is. Now, just one little note, because, you know, we live in San Francisco, where everything's trying to be inclusive, right?

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Richie Greenberg: encompassing, so it's not just the 415. You mentioned the 415, that's the area code for San Francisco, but it's also 628. So, I have to mention that too, although most people don't even know 628 is San Francisco, but that's that overlay, because they ran out of 415 numbers, so…

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Richie Greenberg: Welcome to 415 slash 628.

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Erica Sandberg: Sometimes I like to mix it up. We're San Francisco, we're city by the bay, we're Baghdad by the bay, we are… we are the, you know, place where you put flowers in your hair. Whatever you want to call it, this is where we are.

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Richie Greenberg: That's right. So, beginning of the year, here we are, in January 2026.

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Erica Sandberg: Oh, and before I let you go on, Richie.

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Richie Greenberg: What?

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Erica Sandberg: also the anniversary of the date that Mayor Lurie took.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: Right? You and I were there.

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Richie Greenberg: Yep.

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Erica Sandberg: We watched it happen, we cried, there were tears. Yeah, I forgot about that, yes. He took over the administration of our fine fair city, so that came up on all of my memories, like, oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah, so this is one year, 12 months exactly to the day when

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Erica Sandberg: We left Mayor Breed behind, and Daniel Lurie has entered the scene.

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Richie Greenberg: That's right, and actually she was there, London Reed was in the audience, and so it was almost like the ceremonial handing off of the torch from one to the next.

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Richie Greenberg: And, it was, it was an emotional, I remember, it was an emotional gathering. There were thousands of people there in Civic Center Plaza, right, looking at the dome of City Hall. And the night before, you were not there, but I went to a, a interfaith…

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Richie Greenberg: prayer service for the success of Daniel Lurie. That was interesting as well, and I wrote about that, last year, too. So, yeah, we are now officially one year in, one year under the, the mayorship of Daniel Lurie. Yes. So here we are, and…

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Richie Greenberg: So, what's happening now? In this year, we've got now 3 more years under Lurie, unless something else… he gets, some other issues where he's no longer able to,

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Richie Greenberg: to rule this city, but I don't think that's gonna be a problem, but we do have, now.

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Richie Greenberg: 2026 is yet another election year, and in many circles, they call this the midterms.

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Richie Greenberg: That's in the, from the viewpoint of the presidential. So, you have the presidential every four years, 2020, 2024, 2028, right? So, 2026 is in the middle, that's a midterm.

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Richie Greenberg: And, what races are we looking at at the moment, Erica?

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah, well, a few. We had that luscious, lull there for a while, when not much was going on regarding campaigning and people who were vying for, their… what… what position they would like to hold, but now it's, whoo, it is starting to heat up in the kitchen!

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Richie Greenberg: Very quickly.

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Erica Sandberg: spicy.

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Richie Greenberg: Very quickly, too.

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Erica Sandberg: Yes, absolutely, and there were a couple of events that happened recently. One just last night, a group called the San Francisco Family Working Party…

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Richie Greenberg: Actually, it's the working families.

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Erica Sandberg: Working fast.

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Richie Greenberg: And it's the California one, so…

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Erica Sandberg: That's right. California workers working families. Right, and I think the head of the San Francisco one is Jane Kim, who did used to be a supervisor. Very much of a progressive slash hard left slash socialist. Communist. Whatever you want to call it. Some people call her commie Jane Kim.

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Richie Greenberg: Sure, sure.

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Erica Sandberg: But that's who the head of it… and there was a,

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Erica Sandberg: a congressional, forum, so who's going to be representing San Francisco in Congress.

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Richie Greenberg: Now, specifically.

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Richie Greenberg: That is for, succeeding Nancy Pelosi.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right. And still, to this day, there are a lot of people around the state.

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Richie Greenberg: around the Bay Area, around the country, that don't realize that the only people that have gotten to

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Richie Greenberg: vote and elect and re-elect and re-elect Nancy Pelosi again and again to the House of Residents is us, is the San Franciscans. Just us, not even outside the city. It's only San Francisco voters. So she announced a few months ago she's no longer running

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Richie Greenberg: For re-election. That's it. She's gonna retire at the end of…

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Richie Greenberg: Actually, it's gonna be this year. She's gonna be… end of this year is her last year.

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Richie Greenberg: I anticipate so many

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Richie Greenberg: parties and tributes, and she's going to be fetid, right? Not fetid, but fetid. Fet, from French, to celebrate, okay? Right.

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Erica Sandberg: Like it or… like her, hate her, love her, are baffled by her, whatever you want to say, she is part of San Francisco fabric. Been around a long time. She's been in politics, I think, well over 45 years. I could be wrong about that, but it's around that many.

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Richie Greenberg: That's even more than you and I have been alive.

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Erica Sandberg: Right.

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Erica Sandberg: So her seat is going to be open, so who's going to succeed her and succeed her? And what we have last night was a forum. It wasn't a debate, it was a forum, which really is like, hey, this is how… who I am, this is how I might be different from my contenders.

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Erica Sandberg: Three very, very progressive candidates. Scott Weiner.

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Erica Sandberg: Right? Connie Chan, and I'm going to… I have such a hard time with his name. Sakate? Sakate?

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Richie Greenberg: Saikat Chakrabhati.

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Erica Sandberg: Yes, so I think I would like to refer to all three of them by their first names.

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Erica Sandberg: We're on first-name basis around here. I know, I… So, yeah, they all went. And what was really interesting, Richie, and this is something that was… caused quite a flurry, was that I did, as a member of the press, I did RSVP to the event. I received a notification saying.

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Erica Sandberg: Excellent, you're going, here's the date, here's the time, here's the place.

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Richie Greenberg: How long ago was that?

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Erica Sandberg: Oh, God. Weeks ago.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, so you already had firm confirmation. More than a week ago, I would say probably about 10 or 12 days ago. Yeah, so you had firm confirmation, member of the press, the media.

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Erica Sandberg: I did interact with a person who was, several people, actually, who were… who were managing the event, and they said, okay, where's the press gonna set up? I want to put my tripod pretty close. He's like, yeah, no problem. As I was getting dressed.

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Erica Sandberg: Looking sharp. Put my nice red suit on. It's one of my favorites. In fact, that's the same one that I wore to Daniel Lurie's first day.

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Richie Greenberg: So this is right… you're getting ready to go to the event, to the candidate forum.

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Erica Sandberg: I checked my email.

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Erica Sandberg: And it said, you're no longer…

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Erica Sandberg: RSVP'd for the live event. You can listen in on YouTube, and I was absolutely livid.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah, it was… it was really, like, what are you doing? So, this is, this is a really important.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: It's not about me being insulted, couldn't care less. This isn't personal. It's actually professional, however. This…

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Erica Sandberg: Is a… this was an attempt, and it… and they succeeded, by this working party to curate the crowd.

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Erica Sandberg: That's wrong.

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Erica Sandberg: That is something that, right, and they did it in a very underhanded way, and I think everybody needs to be concerned with these types of situations. What does that do? That truncates information, the free flow of ideas. You need to have people there who are listening.

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Erica Sandberg: with a different ear, a different perspective, and are willing to go out of their way to sit in these forums and really observe and make

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Erica Sandberg: an assessment, and then bring it back to the people. This is what we do as journalists. So, to start really kind of narrowing that crowd so that they only have a certain type of journalist there is…

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Erica Sandberg: really immoral, is highly problematic. It's something… it is a path that we really should not be going down.

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Richie Greenberg: It's dishonest, also, because of what, any statements that may come out of that candidate forum, and trying to paint whichever candidates in the best light.

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Richie Greenberg: That makes it seem like that is the only view. So it's being dishonest with the public, it's being dishonest with the voters. It's being dishonest with San Francisco.

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Erica Sandberg: Yes, absolutely. And it's something that people should be really aware of, is if a group, an organization, is putting on an event, and it's not open to all of the press, I mean, if some are invited, but some aren't.

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Erica Sandberg: That's… that's an issue, and I really hope that people pay attention to that, and it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on, nobody should be doing that. It's really wrong, because… and let's talk about the value of

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Erica Sandberg: on-the-ground reporting. You're there. It is a very different experience than being at your home, watching a video, and then maybe writing about it, right? When you're physically in a space, you catch nuance.

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Erica Sandberg: you understand… you start looking around, like, oh, this person had something to say, but they didn't say it because they're behind me, and they didn't get a chance, right? Or you can interview people who were leaving, or who are coming, or you have the opportunity to ask questions and to really gain a much more thorough

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Erica Sandberg: perspective.

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Richie Greenberg: And to feel also the audience reaction.

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Richie Greenberg: To the candidates, what they say, their statements, and their answers to questions.

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Richie Greenberg: And sometimes, it just doesn't come across on, on a live stream, you know, because some of it, it depends on where the microphones are placed also, so there might be a lot of commotion.

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Richie Greenberg: In the audience, but if the only audio feed is from the candidates themselves, you don't get to hear anything of what's going on in the audience.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right, I value, and I think most people do, value the impression or the report of a journalist who is actively at

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Erica Sandberg: a site, you know, and really getting that rich tapestry of what really happened, and then they can report. It is really different, so…

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Erica Sandberg: You know, what can I say at this stage? Extremely disappointing about… about how that went down.

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Richie Greenberg: Now, just a little side note, I, too…

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Richie Greenberg: RSVP'd. I sent in twice from two different email addresses, one professional and one personal, but still, I'm not lying, I'm identifying myself.

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Richie Greenberg: And I didn't even get the courtesy of a response to say you can watch it on YouTube or streaming. They didn't even respond to my request. Yes. So there's doubly, you know, you getting your, your approval yanked, and me not getting even the courtesy of a response.

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Erica Sandberg: That's correct. Yeah, and then, that…

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Erica Sandberg: You know, that's, that's just, yeah. Unprofessional.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, but we hear about… we hear about this happening nationally. We do. It does happen around. So it… here you go, here's another example right here in San…

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Erica Sandberg: be that way. But very briefly, then, on the, on the forum, You've watched it, Richie.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, because, well, neither of us were able to go there, so I pulled it up on YouTube.

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Richie Greenberg: The audio quality was a little, off, you know, but I was able to hear pretty much everything. I did a little bit of live tweeting as best as I could, capturing from some screen grabs from the transmission. But, you know.

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Richie Greenberg: I don't have a lot to say.

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Richie Greenberg: The reason is because all three of these candidates are awful. They are awful for the city. They are, they are.

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Erica Sandberg: I think you gave two Fs and one a D-.

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Richie Greenberg: Yes, that's correct. So you have the three candidates that were there on stage.

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Richie Greenberg: Two of them? Well, okay, the psychot…

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Richie Greenberg: Saikat, Scott Weiner, and Connie Chan. Connie Chan is a twice-elected Board of Supervisors member. She is a city council member of the district that I actually live in, where our studio is. She's the…

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Richie Greenberg: the supervisor, Connie Chan. Scott Weiner, notorious to many people. He's been within City Hall for a while, then he graduated up to Sacramento, and he is this area's,

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Richie Greenberg: representative in the State Senate, not National Congress Senate, but the State of California Senate. And then Sykot is not a politician, he's the outsider, he is a multi-millionaire, I think, centimillionaire. That means he has over $100 million of net value, assets and all of that.

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Richie Greenberg: And, he got all of his money through, tech, whatever it was that he did. So he is like the little mouse, and I'm sorry to say this, but he had a mousy demeanor.

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Richie Greenberg: Very difficult to understand much of what he was saying, because he… he mumbles, slurs, and talks really fast.

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Richie Greenberg: And,

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Richie Greenberg: it's in stark contrast to a lot of his videos that he has on his website or on social media, which maybe he's had to do 3 or 5 or 10 takes before it gets perfected and then he puts it out. But in person?

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Richie Greenberg: Very difficult to follow him. So, as I said, all three of them, as we said, all three are really far left. It's just, what is the focus of their leftness, right? So, not right, left, focus of their leftness.

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Erica Sandberg: Labor, right?

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Richie Greenberg: flavor.

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Erica Sandberg: Slightly different flavor.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: Yes, so,

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Richie Greenberg: The thing is that, listening to the three of them up on stage, and they're answering their quest… the questions asked of them, they're doing their opening statements, their closing statements, right?

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Richie Greenberg: This is why I came up with that grade. Scott Weiner is the most polished…

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Richie Greenberg: Because he's been in politics the longest, and has been…

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Richie Greenberg: in, in office the longest. He's spoken to a lot of people, and on camera, and in forums, and other protests and things, so that's why I give him a D-.

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Richie Greenberg: as opposed to the other two that were just awful. Connie Chan, shocking, because she has been elected, she's been in City Hall here for more than…

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Richie Greenberg: I think it's almost 7 years now, or 6 years or so. She's been in for a long time.

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Richie Greenberg: And she still cannot, talk about. She cannot adequately, describe what she needs to tell us.

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Richie Greenberg: about who she is, what she believes, her qualifications, and what she has done in the City Council, and what she plans to do in the future as a representative. That's why I give her an F, and I give Psycott an F.

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Richie Greenberg: And… At one point during this, the forum, it wasn't a debate, but the forum.

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Richie Greenberg: is that they were asked, can you let us know how you intend to represent us? What is your role going to be representing San Francisco?

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Richie Greenberg: in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

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Richie Greenberg: And…

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Richie Greenberg: Scott Weiner did a little bit better job, talking about how he would fight for this or that, but the other two, like, they didn't… it seemed to me they didn't even know what their job is supposed to… what is it?

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Richie Greenberg: You know, it's as if they were saying that they are going to take over

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Richie Greenberg: the House of Representatives. They were going to be the leader, you know? There's 435 representatives in the House of Representatives. It's all based on the population of each state.

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Richie Greenberg: Right? And there's the calculation, so you're in a room with 434 other

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Richie Greenberg: you know, colleagues of yours, right? And you don't just lead them all against Trump.

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Richie Greenberg: You know, you have to learn how to build coalitions, and how within the coalition, there's other coalitions. And then there's the party line, and you don't just get elected and now you start to, you know, Connie Chan said, I'm gonna impeach Trump.

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Richie Greenberg: I'm like, well, no, you're not going to impeach Trump, someone is going to, you know, go through the motions and recommend it, but we can sit here, Erica, you and I, and dissect everything that we said, but at that forum last night, and it just is boring, I don't want to. But…

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Richie Greenberg: I mean, I don't think that they knew what their role is really going to be. They were making pie-in-the-sky, projections and things of what they say that they would like to do.

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Richie Greenberg: And in obvious fashion, the way that Scott Weiner talks, he led with his genital obsession

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Richie Greenberg: legislation. He is the LGBTQIA+++ champion, and everything that he sees and talks about is from that lens. So, healthcare, right? National healthcare, that will include

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Richie Greenberg: treatment for LGBTQ and for trans people. How about, you know, their education, healthcare, for, for housing?

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Richie Greenberg: For, you know, you name it.

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Richie Greenberg: He… everything has to do with LGBT version.

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Richie Greenberg: Sycott, on the… when he was up, he had a much more broad… and same thing with, with, with Connie Chan.

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Richie Greenberg: More diffuse, not so nuanced as, as, Scott Weiner, but…

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Richie Greenberg: it was interesting because the host was the California Working Families Party, which is not really even an official party in the state. Not here. They haven't reached that level threshold, so they're just, like, a party in the name, right?

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Richie Greenberg: But…

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Richie Greenberg: as you said, we said they're pretty much really far-left socialist, communist, Marxist, people, right? So, Sykot is like them. Saikot is one of these people.

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Richie Greenberg: And his… constant bashing of the Democrats and Democrat Party.

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Richie Greenberg: Which is strange, because you'd think, well, this guy's a Democrat. Well, in a sense, he's not.

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Richie Greenberg: He's like Mom Donnie, he's a socialist in New York, right? So, Sycott kept talking about how not only…

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Richie Greenberg: do… does he want to, and he, you know, he promises to not only fight Trump, and the Trump agenda, and MAGA,

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Richie Greenberg: And the Republicans and Republican Party…

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Richie Greenberg: But he also wants to fight the Democrats, the Democratic Party, that are the sellouts to the big corporate interests. And he wants the ones only to deal… to deal with the ones that are in agreement with him, that are the far left, and everyone else has to be flushed out of the party.

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Erica Sandberg: Right.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, so that's… that's what we're dealing with.

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Erica Sandberg: Other differences, too. Scott Weiner is the YIMBY… is the YIMBY proponent, and he's really into housing, really into development, and that type of thing, whereas Connie Chan is more, she kind of takes more of a backseat to that, more of a preservationist. So that…

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Richie Greenberg: Believe it or not, can you believe that? That you have this far-left candidate that is not really Yimby? It's very strange.

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Erica Sandberg: Make no mistake.

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Erica Sandberg: she wants social housing, aka the projects, affordable housing. It's really more of a response to the potential for financial gain. She doesn't make… she's really not… not very happy with that, so she's not gonna… she's not gonna move forward with anything pertaining.

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Richie Greenberg: So, so, so then this, this is the problem. If, if,

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Richie Greenberg: If Scott Weiner is the yimby big, big money interest to, you know, bulldoze, the historic areas, bulldoze the west side of San Francisco, and put up huge, huge, you know, homes and apartments, actually,

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Richie Greenberg: but then the… that takes money, right? It takes big corporate money. You've got, developer money. You've got Sykot, him.

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Richie Greenberg: how is he gonna deal with all the social housing? You still need money for that, it's just, where does it come from? Right. Does it come from the government? It comes from taxpayers? You can't just take the money, it has to be allocated, we have to vote on it, you can't just.

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Erica Sandberg: Agreed.

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Erica Sandberg: Richie, let's face it, they all come from a very solid, progressive background. Where does the money come from? It comes from taxes. That's where it comes from, right? So you're gonna find it in which ways you're gonna try and grab it from, but yeah, it comes from increasing taxes, and of course.

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Erica Sandberg: you know, who… who… what progressive doesn't love, regulation? And, yeah, so it's… the money's there.

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Erica Sandberg: premises there. We've got Scott, who's more pro-development, Connie, who wants to do preservation, affordable housing, Psycott, I don't think he's made that a big part of his platform, but…

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Richie Greenberg: Now, but it's a… It could go either way. It's a good… it's a good segue, because you're talking about the taxes and stuff, because Connie Chan.

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Richie Greenberg: She… she was asked, and she… she stood up, and she said,

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Richie Greenberg: She fully supports the 5… that 5% billionaire tax. Now, that is a state of California proposal.

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Richie Greenberg: And there are, right now, probably within the last week or so.

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Erica Sandberg: Actually, can I clarify that, please?

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: Ro Khanna.

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Erica Sandberg: is the co-sponsor of that, and it really comes from the union, S-I-E-U union, right? So really, they kind of co-joined

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Erica Sandberg: And brought this forward, and essentially, it is that 5% one-time, tax on anybody making… anybody who…

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Richie Greenberg: Assets. Assets.

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Erica Sandberg: A billion dollars or more.

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Richie Greenberg: And for a few years.

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Erica Sandberg: With the money, ostensibly, to go toward healthcare.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah, nothing to do with housing or anything else, but healthcare. That's what they say, because it sounds good. Right. If it's a general fund tax, you can't earmark it for something specific like that.

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Richie Greenberg: But, yeah, the unions, SEIU, they're the ones that are really, angling for this 5% billionaire tax. They have signature gatherers out there to be able to collect

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Richie Greenberg: They probably need a million signatures all up and down the state in total to be able to get it on the ballot for November this year.

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Richie Greenberg: The thing, though, like I said, that is a…

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Richie Greenberg: That's a State of California proposition. Here in San Francisco, we already have a excessive

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Richie Greenberg: compensation tax on the highest paid CEOs. That was passed a couple of years ago, that was put, up and championed by Matt Haney, if you know who this guy is. And, Connie wants to extend that.

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Richie Greenberg: She wants to broaden it to who would be required to pay this, and I think it was, you know, I may be wrong on this, but I think it was supposed to expire in another year or two. They want to extend it further out.

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Richie Greenberg: And so we would potentially have, like, a double whammy if someone who is wealthy

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Richie Greenberg: in San Francisco, but is also a CEO of a company, they may pay double on this. It's not 5% either, but both.

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Richie Greenberg: But what Connie said, which was really shocking about this 5% tax, she's not only totally on board with this, but she says in her job, in the position in Washington, D.C,

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Richie Greenberg: she would want to push to have that 5% wealth tax nationwide, so it's not just California. So people that are fleeing California now, we've got all these billionaires that are leaving and setting up their offices in Texas and Florida, wherever they're going, right?

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Erica Sandberg: They ruined their life.

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Richie Greenberg: They wouldn't be able to escape it. They would still be… and I can't… I can't see that happening, but this is what Connie wants to do. So, I don't know, I don't think we need to go into everything else, all the details, because there's so… such minutiae.

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Richie Greenberg: But, overall, these three, right now, are the… known prominent…

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Richie Greenberg: candidates for, for succeeding Nancy Pelosi. There's one or two others that have declared

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Richie Greenberg: They've thrown their name in the hat, but they've raised essentially no money, and they're unknowns. These three, yesterday and right now, at this point in time, are the only ones that we know of. Now, we have the first primary.

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Richie Greenberg: That is coming up in June, so if it's these three, plus other little stragglers, that

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Richie Greenberg: you know, we vote the first, the first election in, in, in June.

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Richie Greenberg: whoever the top two vote-getters are, then move in… move forward to next November's… the finals, right? So there's… this is not a ranked choice, situation, so it doesn't take that into account. It's just that the top two that win in June move on to November.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right. So it's gonna be up to us. Eventually, we are gonna be voting, and

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Erica Sandberg: what, you know, would… I would say start prepping now, if you… if you're… if you're here, because you're… you're gonna have some interesting choices. I can't say very exciting choices, but some interesting choices. What… what flavor of… of a candidate is most attractive or vile to you?

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Richie Greenberg: And for these three, I can't recommend any of the three. I just don't know what to do. We have to see what… if any of them, they tweak their messages, if we believe what their tweaks say, or is today, yesterday's event…

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Richie Greenberg: an indication of, like, you know, don't even pay attention to what they say going forward. This is who they are, this is their messaging, and boy, are we in trouble.

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Erica Sandberg: Oh, we forgot to mention the one… there was a bit of a kerfuffle at the forum when people were asked… each of them were asked, right, about Israel.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, so it was the lightning round area where they only had pedals. They were, like, a yes on one side, no on the other, right? So, the three of them were there, they were asked just a few questions, and that gotcha moment, which we were all waiting for.

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Richie Greenberg: hit hard on, Scott Weiner. So, the question was, posed to all three, and you just answer yes or no, is Israel committing a genocide in Gaza? And within

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Richie Greenberg: you know, a split second before the question was even finished, SYCOT immediately, yes, Israel is, you know, to indicate, yes, they are committing a genocide. Connie, also, yes.

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Richie Greenberg: And Scott Weiner, he didn't answer. He just sat there for a moment, thought.

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Richie Greenberg: And as the microseconds were ticking by before he, like, ran out of time to answer, the crowd started to get riled up, you could tell, because they expected, they wanted him, they expected him to say yes, just like the other two.

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Richie Greenberg: But he refused to answer, he was just, like, twiddling the handle of it, so it didn't… it just a yes, no, yes, no, and then he just stopped, and…

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Erica Sandberg: you could see that he was flabbergasted, so… The carefully curated crowd went wild.

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Richie Greenberg: That's right.

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Erica Sandberg: Oh, no, you have to answer, what? You know, yeah, so that was really…

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Erica Sandberg: A funny moment, like, well, well done for having a really diverse, a diverse audience there.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, and I wonder if they did that on purpose to try and not set him up, but to just, like, expose.

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Erica Sandberg: I think so.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, I think so.

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Erica Sandberg: Huh.

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Richie Greenberg: because he's been here in San Francisco, he goes to all the different synagogues, he goes to all the Jewish events, he goes to any of the holiday celebrations, he goes to Union Square, and

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Richie Greenberg: the menorah lighting every year, that giant menorah in Union Square near Macy's, and he's there as, you know, the big Jewish, macher, you know, the big doer of the city, and this, this really was very problematic.

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Richie Greenberg: Not that they asked him.

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Richie Greenberg: I don't think that was a problem. The problem is how he responded.

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Richie Greenberg: Because you have a lot of Jewish voters in the city, specifically here on the west side as well. We've got a very big voting bloc out here on the west side.

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Richie Greenberg: a lot are very, very much fans of Israel. Many are Israeli, or have been to Israel, have family there, more orthodox synagogues, and so he just screwed… he just screwed it up, his relationship with them. Yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah. So, yeah, again, very interesting forum. Yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: Yep.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even for not being there. Even for not being there, you know?

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Erica Sandberg: You know, for… as a nice…

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Erica Sandberg: way to wrap this up is just remember, when these events do happen, you know, as a

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Erica Sandberg: as a resident, as a voter, right, you're going to want complete information. Be really… I would say I'm going to be very, very discerning, really read between the lines who was there, who wasn't, what kind of information, what's the difference between different reports. It's going to be an essential

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Erica Sandberg: exercise, I think, for all of us, because

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Erica Sandberg: We have to be educated voters. This is what we have to do. We can't blame anybody else if we voted for somebody who was not very good. This was something, you know, I've certainly had regrets.

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Erica Sandberg: I remember way back when, when I was young and, you know, first voting, I was so excited, and I think the first… I would just like, oh, they're all the same, and I would vote for the first one on the list. That's what you did when you were 18.

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Richie Greenberg: And plenty of people now, the same thing, they look, they look for a racial, or a…

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Erica Sandberg: I've heard of.

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Richie Greenberg: Oh, it's a wor… it's a woman, I like… I like the person's name.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right.

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Richie Greenberg: Right? Not even seeing what they look like.

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Erica Sandberg: Right? They're Jewish, I'm Jewish, they're, you know, whatever the case.

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Richie Greenberg: Asian, yeah, black, it's just the identity politics. That is how, unfortunately, many of the wrong people get elected.

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Erica Sandberg: So, we lead busy lives, it's hard to do all the research, so that's why good journalism is so essential, because you… it…

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Erica Sandberg: it has the power to synthesize in just the right way. It's hopefully not biased. I try very hard not to be biased. I do look for the nuggets of interest, and

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Erica Sandberg: hey, I may not like somebody personally, however, this may be positive. And that needs to come out. It can't be a, you know, just a…

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Erica Sandberg: a random, I don't like this person because of that, and therefore everything that they do is wrong. It just sort of doesn't work for me, and it doesn't work for a lot of people, and it shouldn't.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: Okay, I think we've covered this topic, and I'm sure that in the next few months, we'll revisit it again as we're getting closer to the primaries in June.

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Richie Greenberg: And anything else that comes up in our wonderful city by the bay, you know? We do all this because we love San Francisco, and we're kind of disappointed in certain aspects, and the politics is disappointing.

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Erica Sandberg: Definitely, definitely. Hey, and listen, I am happy for this new year. You and I are go… we're gonna be in it, we're gonna be in this thing, we're gonna be swimming with the sharks, and it's gonna be fun. So I really hope that everybody sticks around.

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Erica Sandberg: Keep listening to the podcast, keep making your suggestions, keep asking questions. That's what we're here for, and it's gonna be… it's gonna be rockin'.

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Richie Greenberg: Yep, it is.

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Richie Greenberg: So, again, thank you to the listeners and the viewers, and thank you for joining Erica and me, and this is really San Francisco, and we'll look forward to the next episode coming up shortly.

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Erica Sandberg: Okay, to the future. Bye, Richie.

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Richie Greenberg: Bye-bye.