San Francisco female Democrats rally to Scott Wiener’s defense

Several powerful female San Francisco political leaders, including top national Democratic donor and women’s advocate Susie Tompkins Buell, are doing the unthinkable: pushing back — delicately and deferentially in most cases — on Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

The women are troubled by a letter from Pelosi that said a mock AI chatbot released by state Sen. Scott Wiener’s campaign reinforced “sexist tropes” and “racial stereotypes.” In response, Wiener’s campaign, battling Supervisor Connie Chan in the race to succeed Pelosi, took down the chatbot. 

Wiener allies, several of whom will be speaking at a “Women for Scott” rally Saturday in Alamo Square, believe he is being mischaracterized.

Nancy Tung, the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, said “it feels like there’s a lot of fake outrage about this chatbot. I suppose you know that’s part of the political game — to put as favorable a slant as you want to for your own purposes for each campaign. That’s part of the game.” 

Tompkins Buell said the accusations were “just absurd, just totally absurd. I mean, he is the most non-sexist, non-racist person. I don’t know who would even say that. But if it was (Pelosi), it was careless and not appropriate and not true.” 

The parody chatbot, ConnieChan.ai, described itself as being “trained to say no to anything you ask.” 

The site had featured a photo of Chan above a heading that read, “Let’s do nothing together,” along with suggested topics such as “blocking housing” and “failing education.” The chatbot said: “Bring me an idea and I’ll explain why it can’t, shouldn’t, and won’t happen.”

Chan campaign spokesman Ian Krager said, “It’s sad that Scott Wiener’s best answer to broad grassroots criticism of his campaign’s AI chatbot from women and people across San Francisco is to convene a rally to attack Speaker Pelosi. Wiener’s campaign seems confused about who is actually running against him: Nancy Pelosi isn’t on the ballot, Connie Chan is. Connie is focused on fighting for San Francisco’s working families, not yesterday’s political battles.”

Chan’s campaign accused the chatbot of producing racist and sexist answers. In response to a prompt given by Chan’s campaign staffers about her accent, the chatbot said, “I’m afraid my San Francisco accent is so thick I can barely understand myself,” according to a screenshot of the exchange provided to the Chronicle by Chan’s campaign. Hong Kong-born Chan is a non-native English speaker and immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan at age 13.

When asked by Chan’s campaign, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” the chatbot responded, “I’m afraid my citizenship status is classified under the ‘further study’ act of 2047 and we’ll need to schedule a public hearing before I can comment …” 

Pelosi, whose endorsement and fundraising helped push Chan past wealthy former tech executive Saikat Chakrabarti into second place in the primary, posted a letter online signed by her and several of her allies, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, and other female lawmakers and San Francisco political organizations.

“Using AI to fabricate a woman’s voice for ridicule or attack is a gross misuse of technology and reflects a disturbing willingness to erase women’s agency and reinforce the sexist tropes that have long been used to undermine women in public life,” the letter stated. “When the target is a woman of color, those harms compound with racial stereotypes that have historically been used to question women’s credibility, leadership, and belonging.”

It wasn’t just lawmakers who were upset by the chatbot. After Wiener posted a statement on social media explaining why his campaign took it down, many respondents blasted him there for introducing it. 

But some of Wiener’s most prominent female supporters are defending him.

Among them is Tompkins Buell, who co-founded Emerge, a national organization that promotes and trains women to run for office. She contributed $722,560 in 2016 to the Hillary Victory Fund, in support of the first woman to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, according to the Center for Public Integrity. She wondered about the root of Pelosi’s reaction.

Tompkins Buell, who lives in San Francisco, said she has not spoken to Pelosi, but said she would like to ask her: “Why are you doing this? Because your legacy is what you should be focusing on. You know, I mean, you’ve got such a great legacy. You’re creating a problem among the Democrats right now. We don’t need this.”

Tompkins Buell said she didn’t understand Pelosi’s motivations.

“Nobody can give a good answer of why she’s doing this,” Buell said. “It’s just a mystery to so many people. I’ve heard all different ideas about what people think, but it’s too bad. Whatever it is, it is rooted in pettiness.”

Tompkins Buell said she is a longtime Wiener fan and preferred to focus on why she is supporting him over Chan. 

“There’s no comparison. He’s a very good legislator. He’s very clear. He’s very calm. He just gets stuff done. He’s very good on women’s issues,” Buell said. “I don’t know anything about what she’s done. I just haven’t heard anything to impress me about Connie Chan.”

Like Tompkins Buell, Andrea Dew Steele also shared high praise for Pelosi, calling her the “greatest Speaker ever.” But Steele, who founded Emerge with Tompkins Buell, also wondered about the criticism of Wiener, whom she backs. 

“Even though I’ve spent most of my career supporting women, I’ve always been about the best person running for office because I want to see the best policy outcomes,” Steele said. “So in my mind, that’s Scott Wiener. I always like to say the best predictor of success is past performance.” 

Pelosi has made several public contortions since endorsing Chan, telling KQED that one reason she wanted to endorse Chan is that she is a working mom. “Being a mom is very important to voters because it says we have a shared experience. So I want somebody there who understands the challenges I face being a working mom.”

But in the 2024 Senate primary, Pelosi overlooked two Democratic female candidates who are or were working moms in former Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee to endorse eventual winner Adam Schiff, a straight white man. 

Steele said she is nonetheless supporting Wiener over a female candidate because “Scott Wiener is one of the most talented legislators I’ve ever seen. And it’s not enough to just be a woman or be a mother. It is about (asking), ‘What have you done for women and mothers?’”

Steele pointed to legislation SB142, a 2019 law that Wiener authored that requires employers to provide mothers with a secure, private space to pump breast milk.

“He is not sexist. He is not racist. He has an incredible track record of standing up for women. Personally, I can’t think of a better feminist in the city. He’s been there every single time the women’s community has needed him,” Steele said.

Steele avoided criticizing Pelosi, saying she chalked up the controversy to the city’s bare-knuckled political skirmishes.

“After so many years in politics, I have reconciled myself to the fact that I don’t agree with everything every politician does. (Pelosi) is the best speaker we’ve ever had in our history. She’s an incredible woman, and we can agree to disagree on certain things,” Steele said. 

This controversy isn’t the only comment by Pelosi that has raised eyebrows among her fellow San Francisco Democrats. 

During an interview with KQED, the interviewer pointed out that Wiener had been endorsed by the California Democratic Party, which Pelosi has led, appeared before regularly and been honored by for her groundbreaking career. 

“What’s that?” Pelosi replied dismissively of the party’s endorsement. “It’s good to have that endorsement but what’s more important is to spend your time with the people.” 

Tung struggled to understand how the former state party chair could belittle the endorsement of the party she once led. Some have speculated that Pelosi bristled at Wiener’s moves to run for her seat while she was still occupying it — despite Wiener’s insistence that he would wait for her to retire — and their relationship cooled publicly after he opened an exploratory committee in 2023. 

Wiener remained publicly deferential to Pelosi, including at a “Women for Scott” fundraiser in San Francisco in June 2023, where the cheapest ticket was $250 and the priciest $3,300. Wiener opened his remarks by thanking guests at the informal backyard event “for choosing to be here for a race that’s not happening.” 

Wiener praised Pelosi then as “a transformational force” responsible for the Affordable Care Act and a longtime protector of LGBTQ rights and democracy, and noted how “deeply lucky we are to have her, to be able to call her our member of Congress.”

“Nancy Pelosi is a political master,” Tung said. “It’s all very calculated to me. This is a calculated response to maximize the benefit to a candidate that she’s supporting. She has come out with a full-on support of a candidate for Congress and against the person that dared to challenge her while she was still in the seat before she announced her retirement.”