Is Pelosi getting ‘Bidened’? High drama in the scramble for her congressional seat
State Senator Scott Wiener is a strategic and effective legislator who rarely lets emotions dictate his decisions; just like Nancy Pelosi, whose congressional seat she wants to take.
It has been an open secret for years that Wiener wants to run for federal office if or when Pelosi retires; but he also paid homage to the elder stateswoman of California politics and made it equally clear that she would wait her turn in the brutal and narrow-minded machine of San Francisco politics.
So far.
San Francisco Standard broke the news on Thursday He said that Wiener will participate in the 2026 elections, but has not yet officially announced it.
It’s news that shocked even those deep in the jostling world of sci-fi politics and sparked the inevitable news cycle about whether Pelosi herself (who was instrumental in removing President Biden from the 2024 race over age-related issues) will be Biden herself. This also ensures that there will be a competitive race to be watched nationally by both MAGA and the progressive left; both oppose Wiener.
Ah, the drama.
Take what you want, but a few months after hip replacement surgeryPelosi is (literally) back in her stiletto heels and raising huge amounts of dollars for Proposition 50; this ballot initiative meant gerrymandering California voting maps against a GOP cheatfest in Texas.
Yes, he’s 85, but he’s not Joe. But he’s also no spring chicken. So the national debate about whether Democrats need not just new but younger candidates has officially descended on the City by the Bay, but Wiener remains both practical and polite to frame the issue that way.
That will be left to reporters, who have been hounding Pelosi for months to announce whether she will seek another term, a question Pelosi has refused to answer directly. Instead, his team focused on the upcoming election for Proposition 50, saying any announcement on its arrival should wait after ballots are counted.
To be fair to Pelosi, she has gone out of her way to both fundraise and campaign for the redistricting effort, and its passage is crucial for Democrats to have any chance of regaining any power in the midterm elections.
If Prop. 50 fails, there will be no miracle-free way for Democrats to take back the chamber other than an unexpected blue wave. So November 4 is not an arbitrary date. It will determine whether it is possible to contain Trump’s rule and preserve democracy. Personally, I don’t blame Pelosi for getting into this fight.
To be fair to Wiener, the decision to come out now was probably driven by money and political momentum rather than Pelosi’s age.
That’s because Pelosi already has a rival: Saikat Chakrabarti, the ultra-rich progressive startup millionaire who served as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager during her first upset victory in Congress in 2018. Chakrabarti has long been an enemy of Pelosi and recently positioned herself as an obstructionist by announcing her candidacy.
In 2019, before the House of Representatives impeached Trump for his questionable actions regarding Ukraine. Chakrabarti tweeted“Pelosi claims we can’t focus on impeachment because it distracts from kitchen table issues. But I defy you to find voters who can name just one thing House Democrats have done for kitchen tables this year. What is this legislative genius doing?”
Chakrabarti, who was born a year before Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987, self-funded her campaign with $700,000 and has the financial ability to spend much more. Wiener raised just over $1 million in his drop shadow campaign, which isn’t enough. The primary will be in June and will be expensive.
Even though we haven’t reached Halloween yet, a stroll down the aisles of any department store I would say that Christmas is approaching, a season when fundraising becomes more difficult; He pressures Wiener to raise money as quickly as possible before the winter freezes over.
Add to this pressure the fact that Chakrabarti had political skills and his growing popularity. He was the technology architect behind the successful initiative to mobilize volunteers for both AOC and Bernie Sanders.
An internal poll released a few months ago (and any internal poll should be viewed with skepticism) showed Chakrabarti attracting 34% of voters to Pelosi’s 47%. His numbers grew as voters learned more about him; A few even compared him to New York’s socialist wunderkind Zohran Mamdani, who is currently running for mayor against Andrew Cuomo.
The problem here is that Wiener is not Cuomo. He’s a progressive himself and has a long history of getting things done, mostly progressive things.
For years I watched him push ambitious agendas across the statehouse, including bills that I would bet against.
Most recently, he wrote that the state has banned police officers, including ICE, from wearing masks. Even though the feds have said they will almost certainly ignore the new law recently signed by Newsom and that it will end up in court, it’s a message worth sending about undercover police in America.
Wiener also passed a controversial housing bill during this period that would increase density around transit centers and spearheaded a bill regulating artificial intelligence.
He has successfully forced insurance companies to cover mental health in the past They also cover physical health; pushed Exposure of big companies climate impacts; and became one of its greatest advocates “YIMBY” policies It makes building housing easier.
He has also passed numerous laws protecting immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights, making him a favorite target of the far right. He has been receiving regular death threats for years; an anti-Vaxxer He was convicted of seven felonies in 2022 after threatening Wiener and possessing a weapon. Wiener doesn’t have Pelosi’s charisma, but she has the chops to get the job done and deal with harsh criticism of modern politics.
Unlike Chakrabarti, Wiener has been part of San Francisco’s parochial community for decades and has his own base of support — but he is seen as a moderate to Chakrabarti’s progressivism. This is where San Francisco gets wonderfully weird. Almost anywhere else Wiener would have been left completely out in the cold. But some of his voters see him as too developer-friendly on his housing policies and have criticized his past policies on expanding conservatorships for mentally ill people.
But still, a recent but not publicly released poll by EMC research found that 61% of primary voters had a positive view of Wiener. That vastly outstrips the 21% who say the same about Chakrabarti and the 21% who even like Pelosi’s daughter, Christine Pelosi, who has been mentioned as a possible successor.
All of this suggests that Wiener is in a now-or-never moment. It has popularity but needs momentum and money. The Democratic Party is in disarray, and the old rules are no longer valid, even in San Francisco.
Waiting for Pelosi was a little bit like this While waiting for Godota self-imposed uncertainty that is more likely to lead to disappointment than victory.
