You can now count the days remaining until San Francisco’s June 2 election on one hand. With five days to go, candidates and the PACs backing them are spending heavily to sway undecided voters.
A PAC backing congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, tech centimillionaire and former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is sending out a mailer that says he is the best choice for those who wish that American aid to Israel would end.
Plus: A forever-candidate in District 4, beef between two voter guides with opposing politics, and the perks of a Pelosi endorsement.
Read the previous election extra here.
PAC mailer says Chakrabarti is the best candidate on Israel and Palestine
A new mailer hitting State Sen. Scott Wiener and Chan on Gaza will arrive in San Francisco mailboxes soon. “Only Saikat Chakrabarti supports an immediate, permanent arms embargo and sanctions on Israel,” it says over a picture of Gaza, in ruins after years of warfare.
On the reverse, there’s a box criticizing Chan’s endorsement from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi, a long-time supporter of Israel, “wanted the FBI to investigate people who protested the genocide in Gaza,” it says.
Wiener, the mailer said, “forced the firing of Sonoma State’s president and a longtime UCSF medical professor over Israel.”
Wiener in 2024 criticized Sonoma State President Ming-Tung “Mike” Lee after he agreed to divest the university’s investments from Israel and boycott Israeli academic institutions, saying that the goal of the activists pushing for those terms “is the destruction of Israel.”
In 2024, he rebuked UCSF professor Rupa Marya for a post where she discussed students’ concerns that an Israeli student may have “participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) before matriculating into medical school in CA.”
“For her to basically publicly encourage people to harass a first-year med student is just unconscionable,” he told KQED.
The mailer is paid for by A Fight Worth Having, a PAC run by Corbin Trent, who worked with Chakrabarti in Ocasio-Cortez’s office. They also co-founded Justice Democrats, which recruited candidates like Ocasio-Cortez to run against establishment Democrats.
Chakrabarti has opposed sending both offensive weapons and defensive systems to be sent to Israel and said he thinks the government should be issuing sanctions against Israel as leverage to stop its genocide in Gaza.
In a January conversation with Mission Local, Chan opposed offensive weapons sales to Israel and said that funding for Israeli missile defense systems should be paired with humanitarian aid and a ceasefire. She declined to take a stance on sanctioning Israel.
On April 9, following Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Chan released a statement with Sophia Andary, a Lebanese-American activist, which said, “We can no longer justify sending U.S. taxpayer money, aid, or weapons to Israel while it continues to carry out attacks on its neighbors and obstruct life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza. The United States must urgently reconsider its role and move toward meaningful accountability, including possible sanctions.”
At the first candidate forum in January, Wiener declined to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, sparking backlash that led him to say that he now does think it’s a genocide. He is opposed to sending offensive weapons to the Netanyahu government but supports sending missile defense systems.
Read more about the candidates’ foreign policy stances here.
– Io Yeh Gilman
GrowSF spoofs progressive voter guide
Since 2004, the League of Pissed Off Voters’ Pissed Off Voter Guide has been putting out recommendations with “the goal of building a progressive governing majority” in San Francisco politics — you may have received their hot pink guide in the mail this year.
But this year, the League will have some competition on Google. Search “pissed off voter guide” and the first result may well be a sponsored result from GrowSF, a different voter guide produced by a moderate political pressure group spending heavily on this election.
“Pissed off voter? – A guide for pissed off voters,” GrowSF titled their sponsored link.
The two voter guides gave almost completely opposite endorsements for June’s election. The only ones they agree on are yes on the earthquake bond Prop. A and reelecting Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Board of Equalization member Sally Lieber. On every other endorsement — Congress, Board of Supervisors, Governor, Board of Education, Propositions B, C, and D — they diverged.
“It’s unacceptable for GrowSF to dilute our trademark with their ad-bot campaign, and we are looking into appropriate legal measures to protect our decades-long trusted trademark,” the League of Pissed Off Voters steering committee wrote in a statement.
“GrowSF is proud to support leaders who are delivering real progress,” GrowSF co-founder Sachin Agarwal said. “We invite the League to join us in fighting for a safer, more affordable San Francisco, and for a government focused on solutions, not dysfunction or political gridlock.”
– Io Yeh Gilman
Pelosi-affiliated PACs put $14,000 into Chan’s campaign
Last Monday, Pelosi endorsed Chan for Congress, and now Chan is benefiting from Pelosi’s fundraising prowess. Two PACs affiliated with Pelosi, PAC to the Future and Nancy Pelosi for Congress, put $14,000 into Chan’s campaign on May 27.
It’s a significant chunk of money for Chan, who has struggled to keep pace with her opponents financially. Chan had raised around $651,000 as of May 21, far less than Wiener’s $3.9 million. Chakrabarti had raised $416,000, but he is primarily self-financing his campaign and has put in $9.9 million so far.
For more insights on money in the congressional race, read “Saikat Chakrabarti, Connie Chan spending furiously to secure No. 2 spot in June primary.”
— Io Yeh Gilman
David Lee has run for election five times and not come close to winning. Here’s his deal.
David Lee has run for District 1 supervisor three times and for State Assembly once. Though he has yet to win, his presence in the race has shaped final outcomes.
Now, he’s running for District 4 supervisor. How is his candidacy changing this race? And could he even win?
Read the full article from Junyao Yang, “David Lee is the Westside’s forever candidate: Everyone knows his name, but what’s his game?”
– Io Yeh Gilman
How will congressional candidates make change in Congress and address housing affordability?
Still trying to parse the differences between the congressional cadidates? Mission Local has published two more Q&As with them — one on how they will make housing more affordable and another on how they plan to get stuff done in Congress.
Read them here:
“S.F.’s congressional candidates want more housing. Here’s how they’d build it.”
“How would Chakrabarti, Chan or Wiener turn big talk into big deeds?”
If you still have more questions after that, check out Mission Local’s coverage of the candidate’s tech platforms and foreign policy stances.
“What do S.F. congressional candidates think about tech, AI, and crypto?”
“Congressional candidate Scott Wiener’s tech platform would take his AI safety work federal”
“How S.F. congressional hopefuls view Israel, China and foreign policy”
– Io Yeh Gilman