{"id":44880,"date":"2025-11-04T11:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44880"},"modified":"2025-11-04T11:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:34:09","slug":"voters-seem-to-want-something-new-does-that-look-like-scott-wiener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/11\/04\/voters-seem-to-want-something-new-does-that-look-like-scott-wiener\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters seem to want something new. Does that look like Scott Wiener?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who will be the next Nancy Pelosi? Scott Wiener would really like it to be Scott Wiener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A by\u00a0Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/strong> November 3, 2025 (MissionLocal.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Sen. Scott Wiener at a September transit rally in San Francisco. Photo by Kelly Waldron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 8, 2023, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, then 83, kinda-sorta surprised a gathering of San Francisco politicos at a labor hall by announcing<\/a> she would run for a 20th congressional term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An observer recalls the crowd standing and cheering in unison \u2014 with the near-solitary exception of a disgruntled hyper-partisan backer of congressional aspirant Scott Wiener. That guy, instead, remained seated while pounding out a furious series of texts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, others would be left to send out messages with a surfeit of exclamation marks. State Senator Wiener jolted<\/a> the political firmament last month by opting to jump into the race for Pelosi\u2019s seat, whether or not Pelosi cares to keep occupying it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelosi has had this job since 1987, when Wiener was 17. It is unlikely that a high school senior in quasi-rural Turnersville, N.J. dreamed of one day representing California\u2019s 11th congressional district, but he clearly has pined for this post for quite some time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man who methodically<\/a> knocked on 15,000 doors between 2008 and 2010 before blowing the doors off the competition in the District 8 supervisor\u2019s race has been laying the groundwork to succeed Pelosi. Last week, he repurposed his annual beer bash<\/a> fundraiser into a congressional kickoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelosi is monomaniacally focused on passing Proposition 50, and has steadfastly refused to comment on her political future until after Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rarefield<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every indication right now is that Prop. 50 will win handily \u2014 and that Pelosi will not<\/em> run for another term. Would it have killed Wiener to wait until after the election portrayed by the Democratic Party as a must-win to preserve democracy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe speaker emerita has not said what she\u2019s doing, and there is a race happening. And the filing deadline is in a few months,\u201d Wiener tells Mission Local<\/em>, offering a wan smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an ostensible sign of respect, Wiener never refers to Pelosi by name, only as \u201cthe speaker emerita.\u201d During the course of a 45-minute sit-down, he used this term enough that your humble narrator\u2019s notes are awash with the abbreviation \u201cSE.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ad<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Wiener continues, \u201cyou can always say, \u2018wait a little longer.\u2019 That becomes a problem. You have to make a choice. You can always criticize or second-guess. People have told me I made a mistake not getting in three months ago. It\u2019s never the right time, or it\u2019s always the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would Wiener have elbowed his way into the race if Pelosi was just facing her usual Joe Palooka challenger instead of Saikat Chakrabarti<\/a>, a young, handsome, charismatic and obscenely wealthy tech bro turned progressive firebrand? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He offers another wan smile. \u201cI don\u2019t want to speculate about that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"11\/1-11\/27\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Saikat Chakrabarti delivers a speech to a packed room of supporters at The Chapel in the Mission District on Wednesday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Funny thing about reality: We don\u2019t have <\/em>to speculate about it. Chakrabarti is running, and so is Wiener, and one needn\u2019t be clairvoyant to know that Chakrabarti, who worked for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s campaign manager in 2018, forced Wiener\u2019s hand.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had coffee with him early in the year, right after he got in. He is a smart guy and he knows how to campaign,\u201d Wiener says of Chakrabarti. \u201cHe has obviously been in campaigns for a long time. He has hired national talent. He has not limitless, but effectively limitless, resources. He has been doing tons of digital things all year.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers coming through the grapevine on what Chakrabarti is paying canvassers and staff resemble the sorts of money that Daniel Lurie was able to throw around. And you know how that worked<\/a> for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TMI<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti\u2019s vast wealth \u2014 he is a centimillionaire \u2014 and an increasing appetite for change within a Democratic Party defined by its gerontocracy is a potent coupling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money may not buy you happiness, but it can buy you a field program: Veteran Bay Area politicos, glancing at photos from Charabarti\u2019s well-attended Oct. 9 kickoff,<\/a> repurposed a line from cutthroat San Francisco political strategist Jack Davis: \u201cI don\u2019t see a single precinct-walker in that crowd.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be intriguing to see what Chakrabarti\u2019s field campaign looks like. While anyone and everyone left of center would want to liken themselves to New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani,<\/a> this would appear to be a facile comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mamdani amassed an army of precinct walkers over the course of years, well before he declared for mayor. The infrastructure that will likely propel Mamdani to victory was assembled in large part by the Democratic Socialists of America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Photo by Abraham Rodriguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s former campaign manager and chief of staff, has a curious pedigree for a candidate appealing to San Francisco\u2019s left: He espouses national left-wing positions, but not necessarily local ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, he put significant money<\/a> into unseating<\/em> former supervisor Dean Preston, at the time the only democratic socialist and DSA member on the Board of Supervisors, and he also donated to fellow tech-dude-turned-politician Michael Lai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saikat Chakrabarti\u2019s first name, incidentally, rhymes with \u201cboycott.\u201d It remains to be seen whether that\u2019s just what city lefties do. For them, a race between Chakrabarti and the moderate stalwart Wiener would be like picking sides in a political Stalingrad.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sen. Scott Wiener speaks at a 2019 campaign rally. Photo by Abraham Rodriguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scott David Wiener is 55 years old. He has been a prominent mover and shaker in San Francisco politics for a generation<\/a>, and has been overtly angling to succeed the speaker emerita for years<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters seem to be desirous of something new: Does Wiener, middle-aged, a seasoned political veteran and a longtime congressional aspirant, fill that bill? He thinks so: Wiener says he\u2019s already courted volunteers who had gravitated to Chakrabarti before coming to him. They just wanted somebody new. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiener and Chakrabarti can both beef with Trump and his gang on TV and on the Internet, but only Wiener can also sell himself as a substantive legislator who takes on big issues and gets things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Housing is Wiener\u2019s signature topic \u2014 but here, believe it or not, Chakrabarti and Wiener, the godfather of the YIMBY movement, are sounding more and more alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe federal government used to play a huge role in housing around what we used to call public housing or social housing,\u201d Wiener says. \u201cWe need to get back to that. We need to implement a massive social housing program in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wiener isn\u2019t exactly new<\/a> to pushing social housing, this isn\u2019t what city lefties likely expcted to hear. But perhaps they\u2019ll take it: It\u2019s bad form to look a gift giraffe<\/a> in the mouth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Chakrabarti and Wiener figure to differ more, however, is on Israel and Gaza. Just what everyone wanted: Mideast politics may be a consequential factor in a local political race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At his beer bash kickoff, hecklers repeatedly interrupted<\/a> Wiener to demand an answer on whether he\u2019d accept money from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. They were drowned out by the pro-Wiener crowd. When repeatedly asked in an interview if he would, Wiener declined to directly answer the question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiener, who is Jewish, noted that, beyond AIPAC, much of the scrutiny \u201cgets into a very McCarthyesque situation about Jewish donors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have some significant differences with AIPAC,\u201d he continued. \u201cI don\u2019t support sending offensive arms to Israel as long as they have a government that\u2019s not committed to peace or democracy, which is the case with this current government. So that\u2019s a pretty significant issue for AIPAC. They are very opposed to conditioning aid to Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiener, for the record, will not take money \u2014 hard no \u2014 from Big Oil, payday lenders, tobacco companies or the prison-industrial complex (he has long been a voice in the wilderness in the California legislature, willing to oppose the prison-guard union<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when asked, multiple times, if he\u2019d take AIPAC money, Weiner did not give a hard no. Instead, he replied that he didn\u2019t think they\u2019d give him any: \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After publication of this article, a Wiener campaign spokesperson sent the following statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cSenator Wiener and AIPAC have significant policy differences regarding the current Israeli government and its actions within Israel and toward Gaza and the West Bank. As a result, Senator Wiener is not seeking or accepting AIPAC\u2019s support in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s still more complicated than \u201chard no.\u201d Chakrabati has a more straightforward position for the city\u2019s progressives: He called Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza a \u201cgenocide\u201d during his campaign kick-off, and vowed to vote against sending Israel weapons if he were elected to congress \u2014 period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s going to be an interesting race. And, assuming Pelosi does indeed bow out, it will be only more so if Supervisor Connie Chan enters the fray<\/a> \u2014 and does so as Pelosi\u2019s preferred successor.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chan and Wiener diverged on Prop. K<\/a>, the 2024 measure that closed the Great Highway and led to the recall<\/a> of District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, a Wiener ally<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody seems to think a ballot measure in 2026 to reopen the highway would pass. But if such a measure were to be put before the electorate, and if a bloc of Chinese voters ran to the polls, and if there were a Chinese candidate running in a high-profile race \u2014 well, that would surely be interesting, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of that, and more, may come to pass. Wiener is ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have learned in life,\u201d he says, \u201cthat the only thing I can control is what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re more than halfway there!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We’ve raised 2\/3 of our $300,000 goal<\/strong> to cover immigration for the next three years of Trump’s term<\/strong>! More than 500 of you have stepped up since September \u2014 an incredible feat of community support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are humbled. We still have a bit to go: Donate below if you want to keep Mission Local in the courts, reporting on ICE’s actions in San Francisco.about:blank<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latest News<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"S.F.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

S.F. nonprofit just began offering legal aid to trans immigrants. Requests are pouring in.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Prop.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prop. C architect facing ouster from Prop. C oversight commission<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Meet<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meet some of the deceased honored in San Francisco\u2019s Day of the Dead<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who will be the next Nancy Pelosi? Scott Wiener would really like it to be Scott Wiener. by\u00a0Joe Eskenazi November 3, 2025 (MissionLocal.com) On Sept. 8, 2023, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, then 83, kinda-sorta surprised a gathering of San Francisco politicos at a labor hall by announcing she would run for a 20th… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44880"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44881,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44880\/revisions\/44881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}