Wannong “Tiffany” Deng, an Asian Art commissioner who was one of the five shortlisted candidates for District 4 supervisor, is no longer on the list because “she’s not the right candidate,” according to the mayor’s office.
It’s unclear whether the update has anything to do with several queries Mission Local sent earlier Monday to Deng and the mayor’s office regarding Deng’s scant voting record.
Deng first voted in San Francisco this month in the statewide Prop. 50 election. She first registered to vote in San Francisco in 2019, and was registered as a Republican until June 2022, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections. Before voting this month, she had missed nine consecutive elections.
The mayor’s office refrained from explaining whether Deng dropped out voluntarily, or whether the move came at the mayor’s initiative. Instead, Mission Local was referred to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Friday comments, in which he reassured the community members that “we have a very thorough vetting process now.”
Records from the Department of Elections show Deng failed to vote in the November 2024 presidential election, when citywide voters decided to close the Upper Great Highway and elected Lurie mayor. Nor did she vote in the September 2025 election, in which District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio was recalled.
Deng was an appointee of former mayor London Breed and an acquaintance of Lurie as early as February 2024. The mayor’s office did not answer direct questions as to whether it checked on public records from the elections department.
At noon today, Mission Local emailed the mayor’s office for comments and more information on the vetting process.
At 12:02 p.m., Mission Local called Deng for comments. Deng, who was driving during the 48-second call, abruptly hung up after Mission Local asked about her voting record. Deng did not comment on the voting and registration records, nor clarify whether she was still a candidate.
At 12:23 p.m., the mayor’s office called Mission Local, saying that the list of potential District 4 supervisors had been reduced to four people, as Deng was no longer a candidate.
Deng registered as a Republican from 2019 until 2022, then registered briefly as a non-partisan voter. In 2025 she registered as a Democrat, according to registration records.
Of District 4’s voters, 10.3 percent are registered as Republicans, slightly higher than the citywide level of 7.7 percent, according to the latest data from the Department of Elections.
The shortlisted candidates are expected to participate tonight in a town hall hosted by the Outer Sunset Merchants Association. When Mission Local called Bill Barnickle, president of the association, at 2 p.m., he was still expecting to see five candidates at the event.
After the debacle of appointing Beya Alcaraz as supervisor only to have her resign after a week, the mayor’s office said it was taking greater care in the vetting process. It sent candidates a five-page questionnaire, but that questionnaire failed to include any questions regarding the candidate’s voting record.
Deng was one of five shortlisted candidates who had at least one interview with the mayor and his staff.
The other four names left on the list are Natalie Gee, supervisor Shamann Walton’s chief of staff (who has already filed the paper to run for the position in June 2026); Ike Kwon, the former chief operating officer at the California Academy of Sciences; Alan Wong, former president of City College of San Francisco’s board of trustees and former legislative aide for District 4 supervisor Gordon Mar; and Albert Chow, a hardware-store owner and outspoken supporter of the recall of Engardio.
These candidates have had at least one interview with the mayor’s office, and are doing another interview with members of the mayor’s staff today to talk about their community ties, housing, and conversations they’ve had with people over the weekend.
Lurie said on Friday that he was confident in the new selection process. “We have gone through many rounds of interviews, background checks, and now the public actually knows some of the candidates,” he said.
Lurie is presently visiting family in Southern California for Thanksgiving. The mayor’s office said it will not release the name of the new supervisor this week.
LMAO. ML takin’ names and numbers. Nice work, y’all. 🤩
Red rubber nose honking sound intensifies
“At least lie about your record like I did to buy time!”
-Joel
“Deng first voted in San Francisco this month in the statewide Prop. 50 election”
HOW IN THE HELL is she on the SHORT LIST? God this is a joke.
This administration is a hot mess.
How does this person ever get shortlisted? Who is this mayor representing?
Yuppies. Same with Wiener, same with Engardio, fire them all.
Please, Mayor Lurie, anyone but homophobe, msyogynist, racist Albert Chow. Please pay attention here. We need a representative to unite our community, promote peace and prosperity amongst our neighbors irregardless of age, race, religion, preference, sex, class, and/or any other trait. Installing an individual that actively promotes division and hatred will only make things worse. Empowering Albert Chow and his minions will only divide us further and distract from the most urgent and meaningful issues such as the development of more accessible and affordable housing ASAP. Thank you. Residents of the Outer Sunset.
I’m not up to date on this despite my extensive commentary on d4 issues, what additional information can you provide that’s compliant with ML rules? Thanks in advance.
In other words, please support your accusations
“Empowering Albert Chow and his minions” …. ok so now because YOU CLAIM he’s a homophobe/misogynist/racist, without offering anything to support that, now he’s suddenly got minions?
My bullsh1t YIMBY detector is showing 11 right now.
You do not speak for residents of the outer sunset, inner sunset, etc.
Speak for yourself. Disagree 100% that Chow’s personal views whatever they are somehow are ‘worse’ than repeated attempts to install a toadie with no voting record and a poor employment history on top. Chow represents the Sunset a lot more than they do, or you for that matter.
Darn. Lurie was hoping to install her to rubber stamp the looming vote on his deregulation density up zoning plan.
I will not vote for someone who doesn’t vote themselves…
Great reporting ML. And from reading the comments very happy to not live out in the Sunset. Sad to see people so maniacally opposed to a Park.
to be fair, they do have to deal with the increased traffic on the side street next to the park whereas the rest of us get just positives without any costs to our own neighborhood. Wonder if there are any more improvements to the street that would make the neighborhood traffic safer and smoother without costing the city too much that the mayor would not approve it?
This guy is a good example for why only 7% of San Francisco voters are Republicans.
Ike Kwon would be a disaster. As CEO of the Academy theme park (which charges an atrocious $55 to get in!), he was a huge promoter of both park privatization (the ferris wheel) and a (thankfully failed to pass muster) Green Benefits District!
An entitled neoliberal conservative such as Lurie is never going to appoint anyone who does not serve the interests of the wealthy!
Kwon would be a very useful political tool, at best.
Whoever Lurie appoints to D4 couldn’t possibly be half as bad as the deeply-incompetent, deeply-corrupt, NGO-funded, crypto-promoting, fake-progressive fraud who has been ignoring real death and human misery in her D9 district. Yes, I said it Mission Local. She’s awful. Also, the “harm reduction” industrial complex is a racket and the Mission is suffering from those who remain silent to it.
To be fair, I’ve worked with Jackie and I think she really does believe she’s doing the best for people. Although I will agree she’s doing a whole lotta nothing. Not entirely nothing, but a lotta it. Outrage and moral posturing without strategic action is just slop for the social media masses.
Being a politician is actually pretty difficult, because you have to be willing to do the unpopular shit that works and convince people it’s popular. I don’t envy her, but I also have not been impressed.
Suddenly Joel Engardio, is looking pretty good right now. If only he hadn’t given away the Great highway, aghhhhh! I just don’t know what the heck he was thinking, he was a solid moderate for 15yrs/more: dependable, considerate.
Joel was fired for lying. No, he’s looking rightfully unemployed right now.
Everything he claims to have done was a lie. He did not ‘save algebra’ etc.
He’s a liar. Get over it.
@Welp – There was no lie. The thing that recall campaigners claimed was a lie was disproven with actual documentation. So then the recall campaigners had to claim that the lie was said in person, yet somehow never caught on video.
The recall campaigners are the liars.
Joel Engardio lied repeatedly, you are not changing that by denying reality. For starters he lied about the amount of money spent sweeping sand by 5x.
Your move liar-defender.
Engardio stans literally worship at the altar of lies.
Gordon Mar was 100 times the supervisor and human being that lying, spineless coward Engardio ever was. Jewel wasn’t fit to kiss the sole of Gordon Mar‘s shoes.
Engardio stans love a good lie. They pretend to be more community-oriented than Mar and Chan, but look at their record!
LIES.
End district elections.
Nothing wrong with a Republican if their goal is fiscally responsible and generally socially liberal, but if they can’t even be bothered to vote and ‘abruptly hang-up’ then good riddance.
Some seriously bad choices, and I say this knowing they are representing all S.F. not just D4.
Any chance we can have Fielder replaced would be fantastic news.
No thanks, we need local representative support more than ever now.
As if Joel didn’t completely embody that need, Lurie sure does now.
You and the downtown sucking sound can go run Paris and Manhattan instead.
Both Paris and NYC have district-based elections, too!
Perfect.