Connection with family drives San Francisco mayoral hopeful Ahsha Safaí
SAN FRANCISCO -- It takes just steps for San Francisco mayoral candidate Ahsha Safaí to go from city supervisor back to dad.
"When they say 'running for office,' they literally mean running for office. You're in this constant, constant hustle," he told CBS News Bay Area. "And that's why I always say, if you're not losing weight on a campaign, you're not working hard enough."
He zips across town to pick up his son Rumi from camp mid-workday.
"Rumi, daddy is literally at the light. I will be there in one minute," he told his son over the phone.
"When it's their soccer games, their events, it's like, you know, there's a hard line and you know, we're -- I'm Dad. I'm there as much as I can be," he explained to a KPIX reporter.
For Safaí, his connection to his family is intertwined with his journey to public office. An immigrant from Iran, he moved to the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution.
"My mom being American we had to leave. We had family members killed and it was pretty traumatic and you don't think about that till later in life how that really helped to ground me," he said. "It kind of tore my family apart. My mom raised me as a single mom for some time."
With a drive to rebuild, he studied city planning.
"I wrote on my entrance essay to MIT [that said], 'And I'm coming to your program because I want to be a mayor of a city one day,'" he recalled.
He can now say that goal has a shot at becoming reality. With every turn, he uses his own experience to drive his policy.
He said his own home was burglarized on the same night that Paul Pelosi — husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — was assaulted in their San Francisco home.
"They stole my stove, my microwave, my hood. Thankfully, we hadn't moved in yet. We were about a few weeks away from moving in but, I mean, it was just jarring. So the kids see these things. They know it, they feel it, so we talk about it," Safaí said.
Stopping for a sweet treat, he relished the moment he could spend with his son.
"Do you want to get an ice cream?" he asked his son. "I promised him that we would get an ice cream."
A sweet reminder of the future he hopes to build for his family and for his city.
Viewers can watch the San Francisco Mayoral debate Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. It will be broadcast live on CBS News Bay Area in addition to being livestreamed on our website and app.
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