Connie Chan

Connie Chan is easy to flatten into "Pelosi's pick," and I tried not to do that on the show. Her own story holds up. She immigrated from Hong Kong as a teenager^[1] and grew up in a rent-controlled Chinatown apartment. She worked for Kamala Harris and Aaron Peskin, including as an interpreter. Now, as the District 1 supervisor, she chairs the Budget Committee, which in local politics is the strongest lever there is for labor, and that's why the building trades are with her. If she wins the November 3 runoff, she would be the first Asian American to represent San Francisco in Congress. That isn't a talking point. It's the city's demographics finally reaching that seat.

My critique isn't really about Chan. It's about how her candidacy came about. The question everyone asks is whether she'd be in this race, with this backing, without the bad blood between Pelosi and Wiener. I don't know, and I'd be skeptical of anyone who claims certainty. What I said on air is that Pelosi's genuine affection for Chan^[2] and her strategic need to show the machine still works pointed in the same direction, and nobody stopped to interrogate that alignment.

There's also a coalition puzzle. The polling I cited suggested Pelosi's support wasn't translating cleanly, because Pelosi's base and Chan's more left-leaning coalition don't fully overlap.

What would sharpen my view is Chan making a substantive case on housing supply and federal policy that is clearly her own and not her patrons'. Labor loyalty is a strength, but the job in Washington is broader than a budget committee, and I'd want to see that range before the vote.