November 1978: Jackie Speier and her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan, arrive at the airstrip at Port Kaituma near Jonestown in Guyana. Two days later, as they attempted to rescue defectors from the People’s Temple, the delegation was attacked at the airstrip by gunmen from the cult. Ryan was killed and Speier was shot five times and left to die.

In November 1978, the shocking news of back-to-back assassinations of San Francisco political leaders dominated headlines around the world.Two decades later, the tragic events reverberate in the careers of two powerful California politicians, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state Sen. Jackie Speier, both of whom are candidates for office this year. Feinstein is running virtually unopposed for her fourth reelection, and Speier is a contender for lieutenant governor in the June 6 Democratic primary.

On November 19, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan, whose district included parts of the San Francisco, was gunned down on an airstrip at Port Kaituma, Guyana, by members of the People’s Temple. Ryan and his delegation, which included 28-year-old Jackie Speier, were attempting to rescue a group of defectors from the bloodthirsty cult run by the Rev. Jim Jones. Speier was shot five times and left to die on the tarmac. That night, while she and a handful of survivors from Rep. Ryan’s party waited at the airstrip for help to arrive, horror descended on the cult’s jungle compound where Jones ordered his followers to commit mass suicide. Over 900 people, including about 250 children, died after drinking his poisoned Kool Aid.

Nine days later in San Francisco, Mayor George Moscone was killed in cold blood at City Hall, along with Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay supervisor. Their killer was Dan White, a conservative who had recently resigned from the board and who had become enraged when the mayor refused to reappoint him. Feinstein, age 45, was the city’s first female president of the board of supervisors (San Francisco’s city council) and became acting mayor upon the death of Moscone.

Americans were introduced to Dianne Feinstein that evening when video of the dramatic news conference in which she announced that Dan White had murdered Moscone and Milk led the news coverage. Feinsteni went on to be elected mayor twice. She ran for governor in 1990 and lost to Republican Pete Wilson. Two years later, she won the special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Wilson when he ran against her for governor. She was reelected in 1994 and 2000, and is running virtually unopposed this year.

Speier went on to represent San Francisco in the state Assembly and the Senate. Back in the dark days when the GOP still dominated Sacramento, she made a name for herself fighting the good fight for the liberal cause. She is currently running for lieutenant governor and has Feinstein’s endorsement. She is trailing in the June 6 primary against Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who has much higher name recognition statewide, 30 percent to 16 percent, but she is ahead of her colleague, Sen. Liz Figueroa, who is at 11 percent. The primary winner will face ultra-conservative (and therefore unelectable) state Sen. Tom McClintock in the fall.

Women were still rarities in politics in 1978, so the mere fact that Speier and Feinstein played roles once strictly reserved for men was news in itself. What was truly signifcant, though largely unspoken, about the events was the fact that these two women shouldered on as well as men in their situations could have done, or better. Their individual exceptional performances helped to counter charges of tokenism endured by high profile women in that era and paved the way for the women who followed them onto the political stage.