Katie Porter’s campaign visit to S.F. looked more real than Ron DeSantis’ version

POLITICS//JOE GAROFOLI

The Senate candidate made clear she wasn’t a doom loop political tourist.

Joe Garofoli

Aug. 29, 2023 Updated: Aug. 30, 2023 12:29 p.m. (SFChronicle.com)

Rep. Katie Porter, right, joins Kevin Ortiz during a tour of San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday.
Rep. Katie Porter, right, joins Kevin Ortiz during a tour of San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday.Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter, center, chats with Marco Senghor before touring San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday.
U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter, left, talks to shop owner Vanessa Porras during a tour of San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday.

It’s become a trope. Politicians drop by San Francisco for a doom loop photo opp — and then fundraise off of it. 

Exhibit A is Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who ripped the “collapsed” city in a video shot during a June fundraising trip for his presidential campaign. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy stopped by the Mission District in June, framing his selfie video in front of sidewalks full of tents — and then asked for donations.

This kind of drive-by commentary is sinking in nationally. A Gallup poll this month found that only 52% of respondents felt San Francisco was a safe place to visit. That’s an 18% point drop from 2006, the most of any big city other than Chicago.

On Tuesday, Rep. Katie Porter, who’s running for Senate, did what’s colloquially known in political campaign-speak as a “merchant walk” in San Francisco’s Mission District. Translation: A candidate strolls down the street, popping into a handful of pre-screened shops to talk to merchants.

Typically, the candidate nods sympathetically, notes how good the (food smells/clothes look), then pops back into a smoked-glass SUV and drives off. Bonus points if they try the food, smile and say, “This is delicious!” 

But Porter largely strayed from the script — symbolic of her real person image and campaign. She would be the only single parent in the Senate with school-age children if elected. 

On Tuesday, she made clear she wasn’t a doom loop political tourist. She not only asked questions, she offered a few ideas. 

“It’s important to see for yourself firsthand and not to assume you know what the problems are, but really to ask, ‘What have been your happiest moments? What have been your toughest things?’ ” Porter said. 

Those questions came up often at the three stops she made during her hour-plus visit to Mission Street on Tuesday evening that was sponsored by the San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club. Organizers wanted Porter, who lives in Orange County, to see how the challenges in the heart of San Francisco’s Latino community differ from those in Southern California and the Central Valley. Start with the 54 vacant storefronts along Mission Street.   

Porter was gregarious and engaged at each stop. At the Clean Cut Barbershop, she asked Apolonia Gomez how she got a small-business loan to open. Porter offered to help her connect with her local Small Business Development Center for help.

“They can give you assistance with your budget, they’ll look over your lease for you, they’ll help look over vendor contracts, and they have really good programs to connect to the other business owners,” Porter said, noting that her mom was a small-business owner.

Other business owners told Porter about the recurring graffiti and homeless folks camped nearby. 

On housing, Porter said, “We need more housing, and it’s going to have to be everywhere. And so when people say I don’t want it in my neighborhood — it needs to be in every neighborhood.” 

She said she’d like the federal government to get more involved in building permanent supportive housing for the homeless.

“What is kind of getting lost in those local battles is real federal leadership, saying, ‘We will be your partner on this. We will make sure these projects are successful,’ ” Porter said.

Vanessa Porras, co-owner of the Born Again Thrift clothing store, appreciated Porter’s questions. 

“It’s not every day that you see a (Senate candidate) walking in here, especially in this part of the Mission,” Porras said.

Minutes later, after taking some questions from the Latinix Democratic Club at Bissap Baobab restaurant, Porter was off to catch her plane back home to Orange County. She left in a Toyota — with clear glass.

Just listening and offering ideas was a far cry from some of the more recent doom loop political tourism. 

DeSantis’ minute-long video was as lean on solutions (none) as it was production values. But that wasn’t the point. The video was designed 1) to tweak DeSantis’ rival, former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and 2) to showcase the worst part of the nation’s most left-leaning big city to illustrate the failure of progressive policies … and fundraise off of it.

“It just shows you that policies matter. Leadership matters. They are doing it wrong here,” DeSantis said. 

At least Kennedy offered some solutions. Well, one solution at least. As he stood in front of a sea of tents pitched across sidewalks on a San Francisco street, he said, “We could solve the homeless problem in this country” by comparing the city with West Virginia, a place with “one of the highest addiction rates in the country” but comparatively few homeless residents. His solution: more federal housing vouchers to help people get off the street. 

“It’s more important than funding wars. It’s more important than funding overseas adventures,” Kennedy said. “We need to take care of Americans.”

Good idea, ridiculous comparison. West Virginia has as much in common with San Francisco as my three-point shot does with Steph Curry’s. 

A June study of California’s homeless population by UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative — one of the most comprehensive studies of unhoused adults in three decades  — found that homelessness in California is driven by high housing costs. 

“We need to solve the fundamental problem — the rent is just too high,” said Margot Kushel, the study’s principal investigator and director of UCSF’s Benioff Institute. 

Here’s a reality check on RFK Jr.’s comparison. The median price of a home sold in San Francisco last month: $1.3 million, according to Realtor.com. 

The median price of a home sold in Morgantown, W.Va., last month: $292,937.

Perhaps that’s beside the point. And perhaps the only monetary note that mattered was a postscript to Kennedy’s video: “Please consider making a contribution today by visiting: www.kennedy24.com/donate.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed responded to DeSantis’ comments, part of the never-ending national pile-on on her city.

“He’s using the old playbook in politics to get attention: talking bad about what’s wrong and not necessarily talking about solutions to fix it,” she told KTVU. 

“Focusing on the negative and targeting places like San Francisco has been, unfortunately, the norm,” Breed said. “And we have to turn that around.”

That’s the bottom line: San Francisco has to turn it around. Until then, it will continue to be a regular fundraising stop for doom loop political tourists.

Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli

Written By Joe Garofoli

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” The Chronicle’s political podcast. Catch it here: 

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!

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