{"id":47272,"date":"2026-03-20T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47272"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:56:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:56:01","slug":"race-for-congress-takes-shape-even-as-wiener-ducks-community-groups-he-doesnt-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/20\/race-for-congress-takes-shape-even-as-wiener-ducks-community-groups-he-doesnt-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Race for Congress takes shape\u2014even as Wiener ducks community groups he doesn\u2019t like"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chakrabarti runs on the national left while supporting the local right; how will D2 and D4 supes races impact turnout?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

March 18, 2026 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Sen. Scott Wiener didn\u2019t show up to the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Congressional candidate forum, which is not a surprise: Wiener doesn\u2019t like audiences or panels that challenge him, and in this campaign has refused to engage with groups that might not support him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t seem like a good sign for someone who wants to represent almost of San Francisco in Congress for the next few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the HANC forum, and the events of the past few weeks, have framed the non-Wiener candidates and where they stand not just on national but on local issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Will turnout in the D4 race help Sup. Connie Chan? Who will vote on the East Side, and how much will they be influences by local issues?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saikat Chakrabarti, who promotes himself as an ally of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, told HANC that he supported Daniel Lurie for mayor because he was \u201coutside the political establishment.\u201d Lurie was also, of course, a billionaire insider. Chakrabarti said he supported Bilal Mahmood for D5 supe because they had worked together on state climate legislation and he \u201cpreferred\u201d Mahmood\u2019s stance on housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sup. Connie Chan said she supported Dean Preston for supe and Aaron Peskin for mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti was supportive of Lurie\u2019s (Rich) family Zoning Plan<\/a>; Chan voted against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti has insisted that Mahmood is a progressive, and he \u201cpreferred\u201d Mahmood\u2019s policies on housing. The truth is that Preston initiated and supported far more housing, including affordable housing, than Mahmood has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/KimChiSpicey\/status\/2033324977051828409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2033324977051828409%7Ctwgr%5Ed9f787a966217301cd751ea266e34592a40edc2c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F48hills.org%2F2026%2F03%2Frace-for-congress-takes-shape-even-as-wiener-ducks-community-groups-he-doesnt-like%2F<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of new housing starts has nothing to do with \u201cred tape\u201d and environmental review and everything to do with interest rates, costs, and the needs of speculative capital for high returns. Dean Preston backed the most important measures to tax the rich for affordable housing in decades; Mahmood wants to cut those taxes.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Mahmood is now working with the most conservative Democrat in the governor\u2019s race<\/a>, the anti-tax mayor of San Jose. Matt Mahan has endorsed Wiener.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in a weird way, the candidate whose entire campaign is based on his association with the left wing of the national Democratic Party has allied himself with the right wing of the local Democratic Party. (At this point, neither Sanders nor AOC has endorsed in the San Francisco race. Neither has Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiener and Chakrabarti are trading attack ads.<\/strong> Chakrabarti says (correctly) that Wiener\u2019s campaign is paid for by big corporate money. Wiener says (correctly) that Chakrabarti\u2019s self-funded campaign is made possible because of the wealth he accrued in the world of big corporate tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure either attack is going to make much difference. Everybody who is at all clued into local politics and this race knows that Wiener has always been popular with Big Real Estate and Big Tech. Everybody knows, because Chakrabarti talks about it, that he got rich from his role as an early engineer at a fintech company, Stripe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither is attacking Sup. Connie Chan, which may mean Chakrabarti thinks (correctly) that Wiener is ahead in the polls and will be one of the top two who go on to the November election, and Wiener thinks Chakrabarti has so much money he can buy his way into second place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s another important factor here: This is a mid-term primary, with no national or state races on the ballot. The main local races are for supes seats in D4 and D2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chan, a Chinese immigrant, is, of course, the only candidate who speaks Cantonese, and is popular in the heavily Chinese D4; if that race (which is all about closing the Great Highway) drives turnout, she will benefit. D2 is probably Wiener territory and likely a place where Chakrabarti and Chan will not do well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turnout on the more progressive East Side is going to be critical. If Chakrabarti convinces the progressives that he\u2019s the next AOC, he\u2019ll get a lot of votes. If those voters wonder about his support for the right-wing corporate slate that took over the local Democratic Party<\/a> and his support for Mahmood over Dean Preston and his support for Lurie over Aaron Peskin, the picture gets a little different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This primary is not going to be just about who gets what support; it\u2019s also going to be about who votes, and how closely they pay attention to local, as well as national, politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full disclosure: My daughter works for 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":"

Chakrabarti runs on the national left while supporting the local right; how will D2 and D4 supes races impact turnout? By Tim Redmond March 18, 2026 (48hills.org) State Sen. Scott Wiener didn\u2019t show up to the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Congressional candidate forum, which is not a surprise: Wiener doesn\u2019t… 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\/47272"}],"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=47272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47273,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47272\/revisions\/47273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}