{"id":46656,"date":"2026-02-12T19:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46656"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:27:15","slug":"chakrabarti-doubles-down-on-support-for-mahmood-lurie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/chakrabarti-doubles-down-on-support-for-mahmood-lurie\/","title":{"rendered":"Chakrabarti doubles down on support for Mahmood, Lurie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Congressional candidate insists that Mahmood is a “progressive’ and says Lurie ‘has been okay.’<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Redmond<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 10, 2026 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learned a fair amount from the Working Families Party Congressional forum Monday night, particularly about Saikat Chakrabarti\u2019s role in San Francisco politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the questions from the floor were pretty predictable, and most of the responses were about what we have come to expect. Chakrabarti gave a strong presentation, and made clear that he knows a lot about federal policy. He answered most questions in a way that the WFP would support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chakrabarti, shown here at an earlier debate, put himself in opposition to most of the SF left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But one person asked the key question: The Working Families Party voted to support Dean Preston for Supervisor, Cheyanne Chen for Supervisor, and Aaron Peskin for mayor. Saikat supported Bilal Mahmood, Michael Lai, and Daniel Lurie. Why should the Working Families Party support him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti admitted that supporting Lai was a mistake. He said he didn\u2019t know enough about the guy. (Not a good sign for someone who wants to represent SF in Congress). But he said that Mahmood \u201cis a progressive\u201d and spoke about his support for the billionaire tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said he thinks \u201cLurie has been okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is so disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahmood is not remotely a progressive. Not only did he, with Chakrabarti\u2019s support, oust the one Democratic Socialist on the board, but if you follow his votes, he has been a classic neoliberal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He voted in favor of every housing deregulation measure<\/a>, and opposed Sup. Connie Chan\u2019s attempts to protect tenants and small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sponsored link<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Lurie has prioritized cops over everything. He has pushed, with Mahmood\u2019s support, a Rich Family Zoning Plan that promotes exactly what the AOC wing of the Democratic Party has opposed: Private market-based solutions to economic crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two possible explanations for this\u2013and Chakrabarti\u2019s staff, despite my repeated efforts, has declined to make him available for an interview. (UPDATE: Chakrabarti\u2019s staff just called me and said they have been sending emails and did so before this story, but I can\u2019t find them in my inbox. Could be a problem on my end. Either way, they are now working to set up a meeting.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe he\u2019s not as much of a leftist as he says. Maybe he likes neoliberalism and prioritizing police over teachers. That seems entirely inconsistent with his past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe he\u2019s just clueless about San Francisco politics. Maybe, after living here for a few years, and doing almost nothing to help the local left (which so could have used this kind of money), he got duped by the likes of Mahmood and Lai and Lurie. That\u2019s not encouraging for someone who would take a seat that traditionally has had a lot of influence on local politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying he thinks Mahmood is a \u201cprogressive\u201d and Lurie is doing \u201cokay\u201d puts Chakrabarti in direct opposition to almost all the San Francisco left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weird place to be in this Congressional race, when his paid canvassers are selling him as another AOC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full disclosure: My daughter works on the Connie Chan for Congress campaign.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit\u00a0here<\/a>. We also invite you to join the conversation on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressional candidate insists that Mahmood is a “progressive’ and says Lurie ‘has been okay.’ By Tim Redmond February 10, 2026 (48hills.org) We learned a fair amount from the Working Families Party Congressional forum Monday night, particularly about Saikat Chakrabarti\u2019s role in San Francisco politics. Most of the questions from the… 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\/46656"}],"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=46656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46657,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46656\/revisions\/46657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}