Look, San Francisco is in the middle of choosing who replaces Nancy Pelosi in Congress, and according to CalMatters Housing, artificial intelligence regulation has become the defining issue separating the two main contenders. State Senator Scott Wiener and Supervisor Connie Chan both showed up to debate this week, and while they agreed that AI companies shouldn't be allowed to police themselves, they spent most of the time taking shots at each other over who's actually done the work to keep the tech industry in check.
Wiener's main argument is pretty straightforward: he passed the state's first AI safety law a couple years back after working with Governor Newsom on a compromise, and other states have basically copied what he did. He's calling out Chan for not having a track record on AI regulation, saying it's easy to criticize from the sidelines. Chan fired back by pointing to a local rent-setting AI ban from a few years ago, though it apparently hasn't been enforced. She also tried to argue that Wiener's law was watered down and that his campaign is too cozy with the very tech companies he's supposed to be regulating.
Beyond AI, these two Democrats are really at odds on housing, which matters a lot in San Francisco. Wiener's been pushing aggressive housing development and actually got endorsed by the Chronicle, while Chan, who represents the Richmond District, has opposed a lot of construction projects. During the debate, the moderator pointed out that her district has approved fewer new homes than any other supervisorial district since she took office in twenty-twenty-one, and Chan didn't really answer directly, just said she supports affordable housing and subsidies. She also got criticized on the housing question but kind of dodged it.
There are some areas where they agree. Both support universal healthcare, both called what's happening in Gaza a genocide, and both said they wouldn't send American troops to Taiwan if China attacked. They also competed over labor support, with Chan touting endorsements from the state labor federation and a major union, while Wiener highlighted backing from Dolores Huerta and said he puts labor standards into his housing bills. Wiener even apologized on stage for a campaign chatbot that mimicked Chan and criticized her housing record, calling it a mistake.
What I'm seeing locally in the Bay Area is that this race reflects what a lot of Bay Area voters are grappling with right now. We've got this tension between people who want to build more housing aggressively to bring costs down, and people who worry about gentrification and want to protect existing communities. Both candidates are clearly trying to prove they're the more authentic progressive, but when you drill down into housing and development, that's where the real disagreement shows up. In Fremont and across the East Bay, we understand these tensions probably better than anybody because we've lived through the boom and the displacement that comes with it.
