Scott Wiener is an effective legislator who will thoughtfully build on Nancy Pelosi’s legacy as San Francisco’s representative in the House, the editorial board says in its endorsement.
Lea Suzuki/S.F. Chronicle
Regarding “There’s only one candidate capable of filling Pelosi’s shoes in Congress. That’s Scott Wiener” (Editorials, SFChronicle.com, May 9):
Vote for change
The endorsement’s headline is intended as praise, but it names the problem: The Democratic Party that Rep. Nancy Pelosi helped build has lost the presidency, majorities in the House and the Senate, and now polls less popularly than Donald Trump.
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Your endorsement dismisses Saikat Chakrabarti because “talking about radical change and effectuating it are very different beasts.” Fair enough, but to quote Joe Biden when he was running for president, “nothing would fundamentally change” if he were elected. The same is true of Wiener.
Chakrabarti has the strongest vision and record for transforming Democratic politics of the candidates for the House seat. He co-founded Justice Democrats, ran the campaign that took down the No. 3 House Democrat and helped author the Green New Deal that, as the endorsement noted, moved the Overton window on climate.
Chakrabarti’s congressional platform of federal jobs, industrial policy and climate investment is rooted in the New Deal that built the Democratic coalition. The editorial board can disagree with all of it, but calling him a “vibes” candidate is not serious journalism.
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The editorial board has endorsed the version of the Democratic Party that lost the last election. San Franciscans, of all people, should be willing to vote for something different. I will be.
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Ross Boucher, volunteer, Chakrabarti campaign, San Francisco
Ahead of the curve
The endorsement of state Sen Scott Wiener for Congress was thoughtful, but it overlooked one of his most consequential contributions: his early leadership on distributed battery storage paired with rooftop solar.
As chair of the Senate Budget Committee and author of Senate Bill 700 in 2018, Wiener helped drive incentives for customer-sited battery systems — an approach that began in California and is now spreading nationwide.
At the time, this policy faced strong opposition from investor-owned utilities and skepticism from the California Public Utilities Commission, which ultimately implemented the programs he advanced.
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Wiener deserves significant credit for recognizing, well ahead of the mainstream, that distributed storage could lower costs for customers and ratepayers while strengthening grid resilience.
Wiener’s willingness to push policy forward, despite institutional resistance, reflects the kind of forward-looking leadership California needs as it navigates the energy transition.
Rick Brown, board member, California Solar & Storage Association and the School Energy Coalition, Petaluma
Barrier to healthcare reform
The endorsement editorial points out that Scott Wiener authored state Senate Bill 770 to pursue a path to universal healthcare, but the bill overshadowed legislation that would have created single-payer public healthcare in California.
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Legislation from Assembly Member Ash Kalra of San Jose to create a single-payer system died in committee in 2024, while SB770 passed, and has yet to produce anything.
The editorial also touts that the now Trump-weakened Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was a Democratic success; yes, but omitting that legislation was shaped by the insurance industry is salient.
Obamacare forestalled popular efforts for an overall revamp of healthcare that would exclude market forces.
Housing policies fail
The endorsement of Scott Wiener calls him “the primary architect of the movement to increase housing development in California,” but fails to mention that, according to a recent study from UC Berkeley, UCLA, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto, the policies he champions have done little to speed the construction of housing or make it more affordable.
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Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.
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YIMBY policies will allow a 25-story building in San Francisco’s Marina district that is opposed by many in the neighborhood. These policies are undemocratic and strip local control from the people.
Wiener does not work for the people of San Francisco. He works for his wealthy billionaire backers.
Andy Fields, San Francisco