Dianne Feinstein to Jimmy Carter, 31 January 1979

Letter asking the President to support gun controlhttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/mayor-moscone/1028/thumbnail.jp

Feinstein, Dianne: How political power works

Dianne Feinstein: Power to the people. You’d have power; you’d be able to do things. People didn’t perceive that the power that rested in an entirely different way on individuals. Power is really figuring out how you’re going to do something, having the capability to figure it out, knowing when to compromise, knowing when not to compromise, knowing that you don’t go to the wall all the time. Concentrating on those things that build the confidence of people over time so that people come to believe that you can take care of whatever their issues are. That doesn’t happen initially. And the districts here are so small that one thinks they have all of this when they really don’t, and they can’t handle the big stresses. That I think is the life of Dan White. I don’t think he was ready for it. He wasn’t able to handle it. He couldn’t earn a living. He had a child. He and his wife couldn’t support themselves on a hot-potato stand, and we made very little at the time. That’s not true today, but the pressure was so enormous

Feinstein, Dianne: Changing demographics in the 1970s

Dianne Feinstein: It was a very different time. The so-called “Old-time San Franciscans”, Irish, Italians, Polish, other groups were moving out, and they were being replaced by a different community. Hispanics were moving in. Asians were expanding. A large Gay Community who came to San Francisco expecting, I guess all kinds of things tied up in a package. So it was a very different time, and the city, I think was very tumultuous. And during that later time, we began something that I happen to have a great disagreement with, and that was District Election of supervisors

Feinstein, Dianne: 1975 mayoral race

Dianne Feinstein: There were a large number of people, by that time certainly more than Terry [Francois], that thought that I would be a good candidate for mayor. I decided to try. I was actually favored to win it. Lost. My husband was a Moscone supporter at the time. I ran the race; I was nine points ahead a week before the election, and didn’t come in second. I came in third, and was absolutely convinced that I was never electable as mayor for who knows what reason. But I was favored initially to win, at least in our polls, maybe not in anybody else’s, and it clearly didn’t work out that way

Feinstein, Dianne: Female roles before the 1970s

Dianne Feinstein: I got a lot of issues from other women. Women in the 60’s were not the way women today are. And when I ran in 1969 for the Board of supervisors, I saw in their faces: “Oh she must have something wrong with her marriage.” “Why is she doing this? It doesn’t make any sense.” Well that was then, and now it’s all different. And I tell young people, “You know, you’re so lucky to grow up today”, particularly those who are women, “because you have so many choices.” In my day, if you didn’t get married, you were an old maid. If you had just a career, you were suspect. And if you did nothing, but raise children and stay home, that was pretty much okay

Feinstein, Dianne: Changing demographics in the 1970s

Dianne Feinstein: It was a very different time. The so-called “Old-time San Franciscans”, Irish, Italians, Polish, other groups were moving out, and they were being replaced by a different community. Hispanics were moving in. Asians were expanding. A large Gay Community who came to San Francisco expecting, I guess all kinds of things tied up in a package. So it was a very different time, and the city, I think was very tumultuous. And during that later time, we began something that I happen to have a great disagreement with, and that was District Election of supervisors

Feinstein, Dianne: 1975 mayoral race

Dianne Feinstein: There were a large number of people, by that time certainly more than Terry [Francois], that thought that I would be a good candidate for mayor. I decided to try. I was actually favored to win it. Lost. My husband was a Moscone supporter at the time. I ran the race; I was nine points ahead a week before the election, and didn’t come in second. I came in third, and was absolutely convinced that I was never electable as mayor for who knows what reason. But I was favored initially to win, at least in our polls, maybe not in anybody else’s, and it clearly didn’t work out that way

Feinstein, Dianne: How political power works

Dianne Feinstein: Power to the people. You’d have power; you’d be able to do things. People didn’t perceive that the power that rested in an entirely different way on individuals. Power is really figuring out how you’re going to do something, having the capability to figure it out, knowing when to compromise, knowing when not to compromise, knowing that you don’t go to the wall all the time. Concentrating on those things that build the confidence of people over time so that people come to believe that you can take care of whatever their issues are. That doesn’t happen initially. And the districts here are so small that one thinks they have all of this when they really don’t, and they can’t handle the big stresses. That I think is the life of Dan White. I don’t think he was ready for it. He wasn’t able to handle it. He couldn’t earn a living. He had a child. He and his wife couldn’t support themselves on a hot-potato stand, and we made very little at the time. That’s not true today, but the pressure was so enormous

Feinstein, Dianne: Moscone

Dianne Feinstein: I remember an enormously attractive human being, great personality, very outgoing, good at speech-making; as a matter of fact I see a lot of correlation between Obama and Moscone. The question comes how good was he in follow-up, how good was he in the detail of zeroing in on something and staying with it till it gets done. I think, as a legislator, it’s very different than as an executive because I dogged things. I had, for nine years, a weekly staff meeting of fifty-two department heads. And I’m sure they didn’t like it, but we went over the crime rate, we went over the big nineteen of the crimes that took place over the weekend, told Murphy “What are you going to do about it?” I’m sure he didn’t like being asked, but that’s too bad. It comes with the territory. And you have to do that. Tonight we’re having an event for Ed Lee, may be the new mayor, may not be. Paying attention to detail, and running the city with a detailed mind is very critical to this city. This city is so fragile, and that’s one of the things that happened with George. The city polarized. And I learned the hard way that that’s the worst thing that can happen. You cannot take one position to the exclusion of other positions. You have to move the city together, otherwise it polarizes