Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

The mayoral forum at the Castro Theatre on Monday, Aug. 8, 2011

Newly declared San Francisco mayoral candidate Ed Lee was greeted by a raucous crowd and a barrage of criticism from opponents at a candidate forum in the Castro Monday evening.

Many audience members heckled, hissed and booed at Lee, the appointed interim mayor who had initially promised not to run for a full term but formally entered the race on Monday. Others screamed out their own allegiances, and a small fraction urged the crowd at the Castro Theatre to hush.

Most of the 10 candidates on stage criticized Lee for reneging on his promise not to run for mayor. Just hours after the city Ethics Commission cleared the political committee that launched Lee's candidacy of any wrongdoing, Lee's opponents questioned his independence from Chinatown powerbroker Rose Pak and former Mayor Willie Brown.  

Joanna Rees, a venture capitalist and one of the few outsiders in the race, set the tone when she welcomed uninvited Green Party candidate Terry Baum on stage, and then cast a wily smile at the audience.

“But I do think that that seat was probably saved for Rose Pak to help mayor Ed Lee answer questions,” she said.

The event, which was hosted by two local neighborhood associations, lasted two hours and featured former Supervisor Michela Aloto-Pier, Supervisor John Avalos, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, former Supervisor Bevan Dufty, former Supervisor Tony Hall, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, state Sen. Leland Yee and Rees. 

Each candidate was given about a minute and a half to answer questions about affordable housing, homelessness, job retention and budget issues.

On the issues, the candidates diverged little. Dufty, Avalos, Lee and Ting agreed the city needed more affordable housing. The candidates all said they supported a bond that would allow the city to provide more housing for low-income families, seniors and veterans. They also agreed the city needed more services to address homelessness, with Alotio-Pier stating her concern for residents with severe mental illnesses.

The candidates differed on the AT&T cable controversy, slightly on the Twitter tax break and the city’s central subway plan through Chinatown.

Aloto-Pier, Avalos, Dufty and Chiu supported the consensus pension measure, also known as Lee’s “city family” plan, and said Lee did not deserve the sole credit for the measure. Hall rejected both Lee’s plan and public defender Jeff Adachi’s proposal, emerging as the most independent voice on the panel.

“Pension and healthcare reform is the number one problem facing the city today.,” he said. “This so-called city family plan is not a solution to the problem, it kicks the can down the road.”

Throughout the debate, candidates offered up well-rehearsed lines about their visions for the city.

Ting used Obama-esque fists to punctuate his points about community input. Rees beamed after ceding her time to Green Party candidate Baum, who won much of the audience’s sympathy and likely very few votes. Reminding audience members of his immigrant upbringing, Chiu thanked his parents and waved to them in the audience. Avalos quoted The Lord of the Rings to emphasize his independence: “To wear a ring of power is to be alone.”

Hall’s strategy was to call the candidates out on their political theater, shortly before launching into a spiel of his own.

“I’m the only guy out here telling the truth. I’m a true independent. What you’re seeing tonight is all politics.”

But the real heat was all about Lee and his candidacy. Yee, infuriated about the ethics commission ruling that Lee was not really a candidate when supporters began spending money on his behalf, called the commission a "toothless tiger."

"The Run Ed Run campaign is out there," he said. "We ought to do something about that. We ought to reform the commission."

Amid the boos and backstabs, Lee maintained his composure.

“I enjoy working in city hall,” he said. “These past seven months have proved we can actually get a lot of work done if we can put politics aside.”