Chakrabarti trails Wiener

A new campaign poll shows Saikat Chakrabarti five points behind state Senator Scott Wiener in the June 2 primary for San Francisco’s open House seat. (missionlocal.org) The survey, commissioned by Chakrabarti’s campaign and conducted by Data for Progress in the first week of April, put Wiener at 33% and Chakrabarti at 28%, with Supervisor Connie Chan at 13%. Mission Local reported the poll sampled 537 likely primary voters and was conducted only in English. (missionlocal.org) SFist tied the tighter margin to Chakrabarti’s paid media push, saying San Franciscans have been seeing his television and online ads as he spends heavily to raise his profile. The same report said Wiener led Democratic voters in the poll by a wider 47% to 26%. (sfist.com) This is the first open race for California’s 11th Congressional District in decades after Nancy Pelosi decided not to seek reelection. Ballotpedia reported in March that nine Democrats and one Republican had filed for the June 2, 2026 top-two primary. (ballotpedia.org) Under California’s top-two system, all candidates run on the same primary ballot and the two highest vote-getters advance to the November 3 general election unless someone wins a majority outright in June. The California Secretary of State says all active registered voters will receive a ballot for the June 2 primary, with county officials beginning mailings by May 4. (sos.ca.gov, sos.ca.gov) The race has sharpened into a fight over ideology and political style as much as biography. At a March 31 debate co-hosted by KQED, Chakrabarti and Chan pressed Wiener over taxes and transit, while Wiener argued that his legislative record made him the most effective candidate. (kqed.org) Chakrabarti came into the race with national-left credentials rather than a long local résumé. Ballotpedia described him as a former Bernie Sanders aide, former Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff, and co-founder of Justice Democrats, while Politico reported that Wiener and allied groups have tried to make Chakrabarti’s San Francisco roots and local voting history an issue. (ballotpedia.org, politico.com) Politico reported that Chakrabarti has spent millions of his own money and drawn attacks from a super political action committee backed by donors including Chris Larsen and Garry Tan. Chakrabarti said one mailer questioning his residence was “a lie” and said he moved to San Francisco when he was 23. (politico.com) Wiener entered with a deeper base in city politics after five years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and a decade in the California Senate. His campaign lists endorsements from Attorney General Rob Bonta, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, and several San Francisco elected officials, while Chan’s campaign says she is endorsed by Senator Adam Schiff. (scottwiener.com, conniechansf.com) Mission Local also reported that Chakrabarti has built an expensive field operation, including more than 250 canvassers with some paid as much as $45 an hour. With ballots set to reach most voters within weeks, the question is whether that spending can turn a campaign-built poll into a top-two finish against Wiener’s established advantage. (missionlocal.org, sos.ca.gov)