I think Tom Ammiano is the best choice for the next mayor of San Francisco.

I'm providing some clips of him from the debate to give you a better idea about who he is and where he stands on the issues.

This clip is from the Mayoral Debate that aired on KPIX Channel 5 on Tuesday, October 14, 2003.

Tom Ammiano On Allocating Funds To Defend Tenants From Unfair Evictions (Small - 4 MB)

Question from Hank Plante:

Plante: "Supervisor Ammiano. You and I have talked about the fact that you support using public funds for lawyers to defend tenants in some wrongful eviction cases. There was a letter to the editor in the Chronicle this week that says "well, does Ammiano also have a plan to provide lawyers to the landlords who are abused by publicly-funded lawyers?"

Ammiano: "Who wrote that letter? Was that you Hank? You know, Supervisor Yee, some years ago, did introduce legislation that would provide eviction assistance to landlords who felt that they were victimized by tenants and that passed. We all voted for that. The issue of supplying community groups for defense of unjust evictions has precedence in New York, has precedence actually here in San Francisco. So, you know, as long as there's balance, I don't see anything wrong with that. And I also think, when we do contract with community groups or non-profits, we do ask them to provide services that ordinarily the city cannot provide. I don't see a balanced approach being a wrong approach in this case. I do think there are people, landlords, small landlords particularly, you have to distinguish between small landlords and ones like Leona Helmsley, and tenants who do not have the wherewithall to take legal action when they're facing an unjust eviction. So, I don't have a problem with that, and I also don't think that means an either or situation, as the letter writer was advocating.