Scott Wiener goes to four to five house parties a week in his bid to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi and, at a recent affair, he came prepared for a shoes-off home.
At a midday get-together in a light-filled, second-story apartment in the Castro, that meant bright blue socks with large polka dots and lime green toes.
He remains the front runner in the race against District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan and tech centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti, who served briefly as chief of staff to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
More than 90 percent of San Francisco voters are already familiar with Wiener, according to a Chakrabarti-commissioned poll.
Wiener has the longest political track record of the bunch: He has represented city voters since 2011, first as the city’s District 8 supervisor (which includes the Castro) and then as state senator (where he represents all of San Francisco, plus a bit of San Mateo county).
So, Wiener’s campaign has chosen to focus on small gatherings like these, where Wiener can get beyond a short, introductory encounter and instead delve into policy details.
This particular house party consisted of about a dozen millennial parents, most of whom seemed to have children attending the same schools.
The vibe was cozy: Coffee, orange juice, bubbles, and bagels were laid out in the apartment’s living room alongside Scott Wiener window signs and campaign literature. Magnetic letters on the fridge spelled out “WELCOME, SCOTT.”
As the group settled in, the host lobbed the first question: “Can you tell us your life story?”
After joking that he’d “filibuster for two hours,” Wiener laid out a concise narrative: A childhood in a suburbanizing, conservative “farm town” in southern New Jersey where most of the neighbors “had never met a Jew in their life.” His parents found some other Jewish families and formed their own synagogue.
Wiener admitted to himself that he was gay as a 17-year-old, he continued. It was 1987, and the AIDS epidemic was in full force.
“I saw that there was a mass die-off happening in my community,” said Wiener, “and that there was a federal government that not only was not doing anything about it, but wanted us to just die and get it over with, basically.”
That experience, plus growing up as a Jew, gave him an understanding of what can happen when the government is hostile to a certain group. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, maybe government services will be bad.’ It’s like, ‘Will you survive?’”
The host moved on to policy next. How, she asked, could Wiener use a role in Congress at the federal level to encourage the state of California to shell out more to its public schools?
“Well, first we need to, like, not eliminate the Department of Education,” he said, referring to Trump’s attempts to dismantle the department. The crowd responded with a ripple of woeful chuckles.
Wiener has a plan, he said, to increase federal funding for students who need extra help in school and are on personalized learning plans; make school meals healthier; and expand funding for afterschool programs.
“In an era where often both parents are working or you have a single parent, after-school programs are not an optional nice-to-have,” Wiener said. “They are completely essential for the functioning of the family.”
At this, the host smoothly pivoted to Wiener’s best-known policy focus: Housing.
“You’ve already done so much,” she said.
Wiener is the Chief YIMBY in Sacramento, and laws that streamlined affordable housing approvals and forced cities to upzone for more housing have come to redefine the California housing landscape — and earned him enemies among market-rate housing skeptics.
“What more are you going to do?” she asked.
At the state level, Wiener said, he has been “methodically working towards automatic permitting,” meaning that if housing developers comply with all the laws about project height, density, and design, they should be able to build a project — even if neighbors or politicians don’t like it.
Before he helped pass those changes, he continued, “If someone comes forward and says, ‘I have a project, I checked all 10 boxes,’ that, before, would have entitled you to go into the political mosh pit for five years.”
If he makes it to Congress, he told the group, his plan is to tackle the economic factors that are making housing unaffordable.
That means expanding Section 8 rental assistance programs for low-income renters, boosting the construction workforce, investing in mixed-income housing production, making it easier to finance multi-unit housing, and giving $10,000 to local governments for every new housing unit they build.
The goal is that this plan would lead to the construction of 8 million new homes over the next decade.
It would also cost $1.2 trillion, he added, but he could raise that by working to reverse some of the tax cuts put in under President Donald Trump and former President George W. Bush.
He’s hopeful that he can do this, he told the crowd, because even though Congress is so polarized, housing is a rare area where there is some agreement across the aisle — a federal bill on housing, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, just passed the U.S. Senate.
“I’ve had Democratic Socialist members and MAGA members both supporting bills that I passed,” Wiener said of his housing work in the State Senate.
What about the criticism that Wiener is “in corporations’ pockets” and takes donations from pro-Israel groups and people, asked one attendee.
“These are not my concerns, but I didn’t know what to say to these people,” she said.
Wiener has pledged not to take money from pro-Israel PACs like AIPAC, United Democracy Project and Democratic Majority for Israel. He hasn’t, but some of the donors to those PACs have given to Wiener: Out of the $3.4 million Wiener has raised, about $45,000 comes from some 20 donors who have given to those groups.
Wiener said that most of those donors are “local Jewish community leaders who, frankly, donate to me because of my work in the community and in spite of my views on Israel and Gaza, not because of them.”
Wiener has changed his views on Israel and Gaza.
While he has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and settler violence in the West Bank, after Oct. 7 he said Israel had a “right to fight back” in Gaza and was often critical of pro-Palestine movements.
He said boycott movements sought the “destruction of Israel,” and that a Jewish-led protest targeting a pro-Israel group in San Francisco was antisemitic.
Wiener declined to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide at a Jan. 7 debate, but did so four days later, earning criticism from pro-Israel groups. He then stepped down as co-chair from the State Senate’s Jewish caucus.
As for the corporate money, said Wiener, he currently has a 98-percent voting record with the California Labor Federation, and 98 percent with the California Environmental Scorecard. At the California Chamber of Commerce, which represents business interests, he only votes in alignment with their interests 16 percent of the time.
“I’ve taken on some of the largest corporations on the planet,” Wiener said. “I’m at perpetual war with the oil industry. I am yet again at war with the big tech companies this year. I’ve gone to war with the health-insurance industries to expand access to mental-health treatment.”
After about an hour of talking, Wiener got up and prepared to leave for the next events — the NorCal Cherry Blossom Festival and a birthday party for the San Francisco SPCA. Had he swayed anyone in the crowd? Most seemed to have already planned to vote for him, but were happy that he’d shown up.
To be more precise, they were happy that he’d been showing up for a while.
“Even though you don’t have kids, we still see you at our McKinley holiday fundraiser right up the block every year,” the host told him. “It’s very motivational to us.”
Interesting. He sure wasn’t interested in talking to a group of SFUSD teachers when I reached out.
Maybe Wiener’s fawning audience at this party are mostly private school white parents who have no interest in global politics, including a live-streamed genocide that Wiener consistently denied/enabled for 2 1/2 years — only reversing himself now, fearing SF voters. Maybe these party hosts have no interest in Islamophobia, and they can dismiss the dangers of his racist legislation erasing speech critical of settler colonialism and Israel. Maybe they have no interest in his witch hunting of pro-Palestinian doctors and academics. And judging by the discussion around development, these party-goers have no clue about his neoliberal and insatiable pro-development campaigns, always aligned with corporate real estate interests, and how they will adversely impact affordable housing. Wiener represents the movement that’s gotten us into this horrid mess we live in today.
Anybody but Wiener, people, please.
Sad state of affairs with Scott Wiener.
If you read this Scoot: You crash a meetup at a bar or pub, make sure you pay and tip for what you order unlike years past. It’s not on the house.
How much Wiener pay for this ad ?
I know, I know, you didn’t mean it to be one but it is effectively one long lie starting with your lead of his idea of attending house parties as a strategy.
One I used to argue why Gonzo should enter the 2003 mayoral contest.
Despite the fact that Gavin was already polling at over 40% and was expected to make up the last points in the runoff and never have to go to a Runoff.
I told him:
“All you have to do is get into the runoff with Newsom and you’ll win.”
At the time my good friend, the Queen Bee herself, Angela Alioto was already in the race opposing Newsom and was polling somewhere just under 20% as were Dick Hongisto (was Supe and Sheriff and Police Chief and, I think, Assessor) … I had told Angela whom I was supporting at the time that if I could talk Matt into the race I’d back him so she knew and continued to pick me up for meals and BS sessions during the last 30 days.
So, anyway, I told Matt that once he got into the runoff which was only 30 days that we’d just have …
’30 parties in 30 days’
In fact, Matt went from 18% to 48% in 30 days.
And, it would pay our bills which it did only he ended up going to over a hundred parties down the stretch.
I had the idea sketched out on the cardboard back of a legal pad which I often do with ideas I think are good (???) …
Anyway, Matt got into the runoff and there have been books written about those last 30 days of the 2003 campaign and they generally attribute the ’30 days’ idea to someone else which always makes me feel both annoyed and complimented.
To the matter at point which is again, Mission Local endorsing a horrendous billionaire puppet without meaning too.
First, you let Saikat run ads all over your publication that drew the Voting Public to believe that he was endorsed by the nation’s top Democrat Socialists when he not only was not and has not been endorsed by either and neither will in fact even say his name allwhich torpedoed all of the million bucks or whatever he spent on printed literature with the Senator and Congresswomn beaming like Saikat was the Messiah …
All gone.
But, he still has you snowed.
Now, he’s bragging about all of the legislation he passed like numbers are important no matter what the legislation did.
Like, for instance, while on the BOS he worked with David Chiu to destroy 2,200 units of Rent Controlled Housing at ParkMerced.
Most of his important legislation (other than gay oriented which I’d expect from any SF legislature) has to do with giving away the rights of SF renters and single residence property owners to Developers.
Did you know that they don’t have to tell you that they’ve applied or a demolition permit to tear down your neighbor’s house and you have no recourse when the dozers arrive to awaken you ?
No notices needed now.
You think parking is bad where you live now ?
Wait until the little two story on your corner turns into a business district with the attendant uptick in vehicle traffic.
That’s a starter and I could go on for at least as long a piece as your reporter only concentrating on Scott’s double-cross of all SF Voters for neigh on 20 years.
Folks, we don’t need more mouthpieces for the gadzillionaire class.
We have plenty of those in Washington.
What we need is someone like Phil Burton who occupied the office back before Nancy and kinda willed it to his little brother, John who was closer to Willie Brown and his values than to his big brother’s.
So, I think this piece sucked big time cause it is nothing but a long, long ad supporting the candidacy of a rat.
And, what pissed me most is that you led with a picture of him at a house party that was my friggin’ idea.
lol
go Niners !!
h.
“
“Mission Local endorsing a horrendous billionaire puppet without meaning too.”
To my knowledge, Mission Local does not formally endorse candidates at all. In fact it may lose its non-profit status if it was too overtly political and partisan.
And since ML is first and foremost a news and journalism site, rather than engaging in activism masquerading as journalism (48 Hills, looking at you), it should strive for balance and neutrality.
That said ML does seem to lean liberal at least some of the time. And so it is refreshing to see an article that is sympathetic to a moderate centrist candidate. And especially one with a long history of achievement
Wiener has always relied on this type of interactive campaigning. I recall that he rang my Castro district doorbell back in 2011 when he was almost unknown. We had an interesting and lively discussion for what must have been 20 minutes, and he convinced me to vote for him as D8 supervisor because of his pragmatic and reasonable approach to the issues. He will get my vote again this year.