By John Ferraninni

At his campaign office in San Francisco’s Richmond District, multiple times a week Cantonese speaking members of the 11th congressional district gather to phone bank on behalf of State Sen. Scott Wiener, (D-San Francisco) who is running to replace Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) in the United States House of Representatives.

This year’s election is the first time the seat has been up for grabs since Pelosi was first elected in 1987. She  has endorsed Connie Chan, who as District 1 supervisor represents the Richmond neighborhood on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Elizabeth Lam, Wiener’s AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) organizing director, said on Oct. 26 that 18 people showed up to that day’s Cantonese phone bank for Wiener.

“This is great,” she said. “A good group of seniors come out to support Scott, getting on the phone with their neighbors to come out for Scott. Most of them live in Chinatown and take the 1-California bus here.”

Wiener bested Chan in her district in June’s primary election by a margin of 66 votes, when the race was a three-way affair featuring Saikat Chakrabarti, a Stripe investor who was chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), and who has since thrown his weight behind Chan.

For Ian Krager, Chan’s communications director, Pelosi and Chakrabarti’s support is welcomed, but is not defining the campaign.

Chakrabarti is “now leading an independent expenditure committee, so we don’t coordinate with him in any way, and I wouldn’t be able to speak to any efforts he’s doing in his capacity,” Krager said. “In terms of the Speaker Emerita, her endorsement is incredibly meaningful to the supervisor, and to this campaign. … She knows Connie, and she knows Connie to be the person best prepared based on the legislation she’s delivered for San Francisco.”

Pelosi is “certainly a great part of the very broad coalition Connie has built, but Connie is running her own campaign,” Krager continued.

Wiener leads Chan 47%-41%, according to an independent Oct. 18-19 survey of 454 likely voters from the Democracy and Fair Elections Lab at the University of Southern California. Since that’s within the margin of error, and other polls also show a lead that’s too close for Team Wiener’s comfort, Wiener campaign spokesperson Joe Arellano said the senator isn’t “taking anything for granted.”

“Over the past three months, our team has spoken with 14,000 voters across the Sunset and Richmond, and the reception has been strong, and what voters tell us is they are concerned about public safety, shoring housing costs and cost-of-living issues, healthcare and the state of our public schools,” Arellano said. “Scott and our team is making sure we discuss these, and what he would do in Congress to address them, and talk about his track record.”

Arellano made an implicit criticism of Chan, who has been on the board since replacing Sandra Lee Fewer in 2021.

“One of the things that has come up in our conversations on the West Side is how many (issues) have gone severely unaddressed for many years, and so that gives me hope we can repeat what we did in District 1, Supervisor Chan’s own district, and improve our numbers in District 4.”

Arellano said the campaign is “now transitioning to get-out-the-vote, and talking to voters whenever we can.” This includes visits to transit stops, and visibility with commuters spearheaded by Wiener himself.

Krager dismissed the significance of the 66 votes that handed District 1 to Wiener in June.

“That’s from my perspective what the big difference is between the primary and the general elections,” Krager said. “In the primary, there was another progressive (Chakrabarti) in the race, and he tapped into a certain voter who was inspired by his message, and he now obviously endorsed Supervisor Chan in this election, because he knows she’s the best person prepared to take on the billionaires and big corporations in Washington D.C., which is what he said was most important to him. …When you have one progressive versus a corporate Democrat, it’s a different story.”

For Krager, winning requires turning out Chan’s “broad coalition of working families, union households, progressives and voters passionate and eager for that sort of independent voice in Washington,” he said.

Chan has “earned people’s support over the years by showing up and delivering for her constituents,” Krager said, and now “they are going to show up for her.”

For Arellano, the path to victory is through a coalition of voters concerned about housing and transit, who gravitate toward Wiener’s legislative record on these issues.

“One of the biggest voter blocks in this general election are those voters who are very pro-housing and very interested in a candidate with a track-record of building… as well as funding transit,” he said. “A lot of those voters are transit-first voters, in favor of car-free JFK Drive and Sunset Dunes.”

Whether that is enough to put Wiener over the top is what election-watchers will find out Nov. 3. Visit RichmondSunsetNews.com and @richmondsunsetnews on Instagram for live Election Night coverage.