- By Adam Shanks | Examiner staff writer |
- Mar 26, 2024 Updated 24 mins ago (SFExaminer.com)
Connie Chan is prepared to be outraised and outspent.
The Richmond district supervisor, who is running for a second term in office, said she’s firmly aware that her opponent, Marjan Philhour, will likely garner more financial support — but Chan promises not to be out-hustled.
“I’ve always been underestimated in my life, but definitely in my career, and I come back at it again and again, and I don’t give up,” Chan told The Examiner.
Chan said her strategy to beat these odds includes highlighting her deep experience in city government, her representation of The City’s Chinese American population and her strong ties to organized labor.
November might test whether those attributes translate into a winning campaign in 2024.
“There’s really no magic to this other than hard work,” Chan said.
The headwinds against Chan appear to be strong.
“If you’re Connie, you’ve got to be nervous,” said Todd David, a political consultant for Abundant SF, one of a cadre of well-financed groups hoping to install more politically moderate leaders in San Francisco government.
In 2022, Joel Engardio upset Supervisor Gordon Mar, becoming the first non-Asian American to represent the Sunset District in decades and leaving Chan as the only Chinese-American on the Board of Supervisors.
Labor has suffered losses in recent elections — its favored measure, Proposition B, was overwhelmingly defeated in the March primary election — and will have to deftly divide a limited pool of resources in multiple tightly contested supervisor races.
The district’s borders have also changed since Chan defeated Philhour in 2020. They now include the more conservative Sea Cliff neighborhood.
In the face of those obstacles, Chan is embarking on a campaign to position herself as the Richmond district advocate.
Chan launched her campaign last week flanked by labor leaders and a cadre of former and current elected officials. Before heading out to knock on doors, they rallied and lamented what they described as the plutocratic takeover of San Francisco politics.
“We are living in a world that is upside down,” an impassioned Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin shouted to the crowd at Chan’s campaign launch. “it is our job to turn it right-side up by reelecting Connie Chan.”
Campaign finance
Thus far, Chan is close to matching Philhour in campaign fundraising, but that doesn’t include the substantial edge Philhour amassed in her race for the Democratic County Central Committee. Chan and Philhour both sought and won seats on the DCCC, a typical move for supervisorial candidates who can benefit from the exposure paid for by their DCCC campaigns that are not subject to the same strict donation limits as supervisorial campaigns.
Chan said she sees her sixth-place finish in the DCCC race as a victory, given the resources poured into the race by the contingent of San Francisco political advocacy organizations commonly referred to as moderate.
But the moderate takeover of the DCCC from San Francisco’s progressive contingent was largely successful, greatly curtailing the odds that Chan will win the official Democratic Party endorsement in her race against Philhour in November.
And, moderates note, Philhour won more votes among District 1 voters than Chan did, 7,006 to 6,027.
Chan also has to contend with the well-funded effort launched to defeat her by GrowSF, a political organization with tech roots focused on ousting Chan and Supervisor Dean Preston, the Board of Supervisors’ only member of Democratic Socialists of America.
The organization argues that Chan has proven to be an obstacle to housing development, a foe of public transit and disconnected from an electorate that overwhelmingly recalled three school-board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin — efforts Chan did not support.
To date, GrowSF’s anti-Chan independent expenditure committee has raised about $72,000 to defeat her.
“I’m not saying whether I win or not in 2024 somehow has much greater meaning than an election — but no matter what happens, the way that this is unfolding in 2024 speaks in volumes to how fragile our democracy is when people feel like they can approach elections in this manner,” Chan said.
Those backing Chan’s opponent question whether crying foul over the billionaire boogeyman is effective, noting it failed to prevent Boudin’s recall in 2022.
“It seems like the only message (progressives) really have is ‘but for the billionaires,’” said David of AbundantSF. “I hope they keep doing it … it is a losing message, and I don’t know why they keep going back to the well.”
experience and allegiances
Recent elections and polls indicate San Francisco voters are displeased with their elected leaders and more than willing to show them the door. But Chan and her allies still tout her long career in and around City Hall, where she worked as an aide to Peskin and former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell.
Chan is now chair of the board’s Budget Committee. Although the budget proposal is authored by the mayor, Chan is the supervisor with the most influence over the budget process, and she highlights her stewardship of negotiations.
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Chan and her allies highlight Philhour’s close ties to Mayor London Breed, for whom she previously worked as a senior advisor.
“She didn’t just work at City Hall,” Kim Tavaglione, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, told The Examiner. “There’s a lot of people who work at City Hall, but she worked specifically for the mayor. Once people realize this, they’re like, ‘Oh, that won’t bring about change.’”
Philhour noted she worked for Breed for less than two years and has worked for leaders at every level of government “because I believe that government can do good things for people.”
“Until this past March I had never won elected office because I’ve been up against an entrenched machine that supports the current supervisor,” said Philhour, who ran unsuccessfully for supervisor in 2016 and 2020.
Allies in organized labor
Tavaglione said she and other labor organizers plan to stress to voters that Philhour has the support of developers and real-estate interests, while Chan has the support of working-class union members.
“When we draw that comparison, it actually does move the needle,” Tavaglione said.
However, organized labor may not unanimously fall in line with Chan, and there are several battles to fight across The City.
“Labor’s going to have to make some choices,” David said.
Representation in government
After Mar’s defeat in 2022, Chan is now the only sitting Chinese American supervisor in a city where some 300,000 Asians and Pacific Islanders live.
“Our community is not a monolith, and we require more people to represent us because I can not speak for all AAPI, clearly,” said Chan, who immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong when she was 13.
Chan argued The City’s “toxic political climate” has disincentivized Asian Americans from seeking office, noting GrowSF’s effort to defeat her was launched shortly after Mar’s defeat left her as the sole Asian American on the board.
“They have absolutely no consideration of what kind of loss it was for the community,” Chan said.
Philhour — whose parents immigrated to the United States from the Philippines and Iran — said she isn’t disconnected from the immigrant experience common to San Franciscans.
“AAPI representation is critically important and I think the reason we have seen so much political change over the past three years is because our Chinese community’s voices need to be reflected in the values and priorities of the people they elect,” Philhour said.
Political observers and candidates emphasized to The Examiner that the Asian American community — and the Chinese community specifically — is not a monolith, and its voters do not necessarily value ethnic or racial representation above other factors.
“Once upon a time, there was less of that division — we’d be proud to have any representation,” said former Supervisor Norman Yee, who has endorsed Chan. “Now when I talk to some of the folks who once upon a time would come out and support me — not that I’m running — they care less if you’re Asian American. It’s more like no, we want to feel safe, we want algebra for eighth graders, that type of stuff.”
Public safety, quality of life
Philhour and her backers have hammered Chan for her record on policing at every turn, counting on concerns over public safety to be at the top of voters’ minds when they cast a ballot in November.
Chan tries to walk a fine line between acknowledging that Richmond residents have had unnerving experiences — such as seeing a beloved neighborhood shop burglarized or a man having a mental-health crisis near a bus stop — while still touting the crime data that shows the Richmond is a safe neighborhood.
But her opponents have seized on Chan’s policing positions. Chan has repeatedly questioned whether increased funding for the police department is correlated to public-safety improvements.
Chan said her opponents’ approach is an “old trick in politics — you want your opponents to defend themselves.”
“I’m happy to talk about public safety,” Chan said. “My vision about public safety — the reality is that law enforcement is key, but a comprehensive public-safety plan is a must.”
Philhour, who has the backing of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, is betting that public safety is the central issue for Richmond voters. Chan said she hopes voters will ask themselves toward whom their anger should be directed — the Board of Supervisors or the mayor’s office.
Richmond residents, she said, “want to make sure that they can be heard.”
“You see a lot of policies coming out of City Hall, coming out of this mayor, are a top-down approach and one-size-fits-all approach,” she said.
