Sup. Connie Chan and state Sen. Scott Wiener both spoke to the Noe Valley Democratic Club this week, and while it was not a debate format, I got a glimpse of what we are likely to see over the next five months.
The two candidates were not on stage together. Wiener got an hour, then Chan got an hour.
Wiener spent a fair amount of his time attacking Chan, although he never once said her name. He just said “my opponent.”
Chan spent zero time attacking Wiener.
This is exactly what we saw in 2016, when Jane Kim beat Wiener in the primary for state Senate after securing the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Wiener instantly started attacking Kim, rather viciously, and lied about his record, and won the seat in November.
He told the crowd, for example, that Chan had “killed the 38 Geary bus line,” which seems a bit odd since the bus is running all day, every day, and lots of people ride it. When someone in the audience asked him to explain, he just said “Google it.”
I did. Here’s what happened: Chan opposed a version of Geary Boulevard Bus Rapid Transit that shifted the program from center-running transit lanes (like Van Ness BRT) to side-running lanes, which would wipe out parking and damage the small merchants on Geary between Stanyan and 34th, who were struggling to recover from the pandemic.
That’s not killing a bus line. It’s a lot more complicated, as transit policy in a crowded city with dense small merchant corridors often is.
Wiener also insisted that the “progressive policy is to build all kinds of housing.” Most progressives—and that word means something—would say that luxury housing in vulnerable communities often causes displacement, and it’s not progressive to adopt policies that force longtime residents out of their homes to make way for richer people.
Wiener also said that he supported closing the Great Highway to cars, and Chan opposed it.
So the message from the Wiener camp is going to be: Chan is opposed to progress, she’s anti-housing, she would move the city backward, and Wiener is pro-housing and wants to see a prosperous future.
In an interesting moment, Wiener said that “the left has lost the support of the working class.” The success of Sanders’ campaign for president (he would have beat Trump in 2016) suggests that it’s not the “left,” but the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, that has lost the support of the working class. Wiener has been a part of the corporate wing his entire career.
He never once, in the full hour, mentioned taxing the rich. Not once.
He opposed Prop. D. He opposes the Billionaire Tax.
Chan talked about “rising inequality” and “progressive taxation at all levels of government.” She mentioned “progressive taxation” at least three times.
She also said that “zoning doesn’t produce new housing,” which is demonstrably true in this city today: After a massive upzoning, and massive fee cuts, few developers are building any new housing.
She also said she opposes, at this point, all funding for military aid to Israel. Wiener says he supports some military funding:
Scott also believes the U.S. should continue to provide Israel with defensive systems, such as Iron Dome and David’s Sling.
So I think we will see Chan talking about neighborhood issues on the West Side, where she won the most votes, and about taxation and the Middle East on the east side, where she and Saikat Chakrabarti beat Wiener handily.
Wiener will attack Chan relentlessly. That’s how his campaigns roll.
Full disclosure: My independent adult daughter works for Connie Chan for Congress.
