After Nancy Pelosi: A San Francisco Race ‘That Shall Not Be Named’

SAN FRANCISCO — Nancy Pelosi has made two very totally different, virtually irreconcilable statements about her political future.

In 2018, she pledged that 2022 could be her final yr as Home Democratic chief, acceding to a time period restrict to quell an rebellion and safe a second stint as speaker. In January, she introduced she was operating for an additional two-year time period within the Home.

With the Home’s passage of the sweeping measure to handle local weather change and prescription drug costs on Friday — “an excellent day for us,” Ms. Pelosi beamed — and her China-defying journey to Taiwan serving as a diplomatic profession capstone, the query of what comes subsequent for Ms. Pelosi is just intensifying.

Will she press to remain on as speaker if Democrats someway maintain the Home? Or, if Republicans take management, will she merely retire?

She might break her 2018 pledge and search to stay Democratic chief within the minority. These near her describe just one choice as inconceivable: a demotion to the backbench.

Ms. Pelosi, 82, has prevented discussing her plans previous November and declined to be interviewed. A spokesman, Drew Hammill, issued the identical, terse assertion he has provided beforehand: “The speaker is just not on a shift,” he stated. “She’s on a mission.”

Some clues to Ms. Pelosi’s future could also be discovered nearer to her dwelling in San Francisco — the place the tantalizing chance of town’s first open congressional seat for the reason that fall of the Soviet Union has turn into the political discuss of the city.

Would-be candidates, labor leaders, political strategists, donors and activists are already busily plotting what a race to succeed her would seem like — albeit virtually completely in secret, to keep away from antagonizing Ms. Pelosi, who has made plain she needs to retire on her personal phrases.

“That is very a lot the marketing campaign that shall not be named,” Dan Newman, a San Francisco-based Democratic operative, stated of the early jostling. “Nancy Pelosi is a power of nature, and nobody needs to seem in any manner disrespectful or dismissive.”

In interviews, greater than a dozen officers stated native Democrats have been getting ready for the likelihood that Ms. Pelosi might resign somewhat than keep and hand the gavel to a Republican. That might set off a snap particular election in San Francisco, held inside 150 days — a dash for what, given town’s politics, might quantity to a de facto lifetime appointment to Congress.

Including to the intrigue: One potential successor is Ms. Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi, a celebration activist and Democratic Nationwide Committee government committee member who serves as an adviser to her mom, has written a ebook about her and sometimes accompanies her to native union halls, speeches and parades. She slings her opinions on-line from a Twitter deal with, @sfpelosi, that would at a look be confused for one her mom may use.

Wrapped up within the elder Ms. Pelosi’s choice and its timing are intertwined questions of energy, legacy and dynasty, and the way totally a barrier-breaking, notoriously aggressive public determine can stage-manage her exit.

There’s additionally Washington politics: Ms. Pelosi referred to as herself “a bridge to the following era of leaders” 4 years in the past, signaling her need that her departure coincide with these of her fellow-octogenarian lieutenants, Representatives Steny Hoyer, 83, and James Clyburn, 82. Neither has agreed.

In San Francisco, equally, the Pelosi title stays beloved, however there is no such thing as a assure of a managed succession.

A preferred state senator, Scott Wiener, whose district overlaps Ms. Pelosi’s, is broadly seen as laying the groundwork for a marketing campaign. Mr. Wiener spent practically $2.5 million on his re-election and has been wooing supporters below the guise of fine politics, although his ambitions to turn into San Francisco’s first brazenly homosexual congressman are an open secret.

In an interview at a Brazilian pastry store, the 6-foot-7-inch Mr. Wiener refused even to broach the opportunity of a post-Pelosi period. “The longer she stays, the higher for our nation,” he stated. “I’m on Crew Nancy.”

It was a remark befitting what Tony Winnicker, a longtime native Democratic strategist, referred to as “the primary rule of desirous to run for Nancy Pelosi’s seat.”

“You by no means speak about it in a manner that implies Nancy will ever depart,” he stated.

Christine Pelosi, too, declined to remark.

As former chair of the ladies’s caucus of the state Democratic Celebration, the youthful Ms. Pelosi, 56, has been outspoken in combating sexual harassment.

More and more, she and Mr. Wiener, 52, are crisscrossing at native occasions, like a Delight breakfast the place he and the elder Ms. Pelosi each delivered speeches. “This has been a household affair for us for greater than 30 years,” Nancy Pelosi stated, recognizing her daughter’s presence. (She additionally acknowledged Mr. Wiener.)

Simply as she has in Washington, the place she has outlasted a era of potential male successors — Rahm Emanuel, Chris Van Hollen and Joseph Crowley amongst them — Ms. Pelosi has saved an array of formidable native officers on ice since 1987.

Willie Brown, the previous San Francisco mayor, stated that these planning Home campaigns have been sensible to get began, even when considerably untimely. In an interview over lunch, he speculated that Ms. Pelosi would show a strong ally to her daughter, finally.

“If her mom is just not round, Christine could be a formidable candidate,” Mr. Brown stated. “As a result of her mom would make her a formidable candidate.”

Few anticipate the speaker to disclose her intentions till November. Doing so any sooner might cut back her sway over the razor-thin Home Democratic majority, to not point out her energy as a fund-raiser. She hosts a significant donor retreat in Napa subsequent weekend, together with a cocktail reception at her dwelling.

Each time her Home seat opens up, will probably be an opportunity to not simply succeed the primary feminine speaker in United States historical past however to additionally characterize a metropolis that has lengthy punched above its weight in nationwide politics, regardless of a inhabitants smaller than that of Columbus, Ohio.

In the present day, the No. 2 and No. 3 officers within the presidential line of succession — Vice President Kamala Harris, as soon as town’s district legal professional, and Ms. Pelosi — each reduce their tooth politically in San Francisco. Democrats who emerge within the metropolis’s notoriously cutthroat liberal politics, from Gov. Gavin Newsom to Senator Dianne Feinstein to Ms. Pelosi, have discovered methods to placate the oft-warring factions of the Democratic Celebration.

“The combat provides you muscle,” stated Debra Walker, an artist and activist who has served because the president of the Harvey Milk L.G.B.T.Q. Democratic Membership. Ms. Walker was appointed in June to the San Francisco Police Fee, as Mayor London Breed sought to defuse a blowup between the police division and town’s annual Delight Parade organizers, who had sought to bar officers from marching in uniform.

Even amongst Ms. Pelosi’s associates and allies, some have puzzled if Christine Pelosi, who wrote a ebook on campaigning however has by no means run for workplace herself, is sufficiently ready.

“I’d somewhat see Christine begin at a state degree somewhat than Congress,” stated Joe Cotchett, a significant Democratic donor and household pal.

Mr. Cotchett anticipated Nancy Pelosi to assist her daughter, up to some extent. “Do I feel that Nancy will push her? Emotionally, she’s her daughter,” he stated. “However I don’t suppose Nancy is the kind of one who would step in and try to dam anybody from operating.”

If the elder Ms. Pelosi is understood for her deft relationship administration, that has been much less true for Christine, whose years as an activist have included urgent for D.N.C. resolutions — attempting to ban company contributions, demanding a 2020 local weather debate — typically to the exasperation of celebration officers.

Her final title has insulated her from public criticism, however hidden frustrations have mounted, based on a half dozen officers on each coasts.

She antagonized the Newsom group, as an example, when she steered in the course of the 2021 recall that Mr. Newsom ought to step down if he appeared prone to lose. Publicly, she sought to undercut Mr. Newsom’s central technique of labeling the recall as a Republican energy seize. Privately, she was straight texting Mr. Newsom to complain about his ways, based on two individuals briefed on the messages she despatched.

Mr. Newsom defeated the recall in a landslide.

In a metropolis the place politics is commonly private and fractious, Mr. Wiener has gathered critics, too.

“Individuals speak about it on a regular basis,” Mike Casey, president of the San Francisco Labor Council, stated of the race to succeed Ms. Pelosi. “However largely, like, who don’t we wish. Like Scott Wiener has actually gotten on the trades’ and plenty of our dangerous aspect.”

And whereas Mr. Wiener and Ms. Pelosi are progressives by any nationwide metric, neither would essentially fulfill town’s ideological purists, a wing that would subject a candidate, too. “I haven’t dominated it out,” stated Jane Kim, a 45-year-old former supervisor and government director of the California Working Households Celebration.

Jen Snyder, a San Francisco-based strategist who works with progressives, might summon little enthusiasm for a Pelosi-Wiener contest.

“It will likely be Mothra versus Godzilla,” Ms. Snyder stated. “I suppose I can be on the sidelines consuming popcorn.”

One other potential candidate is Ms. Breed, the primary Black lady to function mayor. She has indicated she is tired of a congressional run, based on individuals near her.

“I can let you know as a pal of hers, she’s not,” stated Lee Houskeeper, a neighborhood public-relations veteran, who joined Mr. Brown for the lunch interview.

“I can let you know as a pal of hers, she higher be,” Mr. Brown interjected.

Clint Reilly, who managed Ms. Pelosi’s 1987 congressional marketing campaign and has recognized her household since, declined at first to speak. “Go away me alone!” he insisted. “They gained’t be proud of something I say!”

However Mr. Reilly, an investor who now owns The San Francisco Examiner, agreed to speak, together with about how Ms. Pelosi gained that first race, defeating a homosexual rival, Harry Britt, who ran to her left, in a multicandidate scrum.

Her prophetic slogan: “A voice that can be heard.”

If Democrats lose in November, Mr. Reilly stated, “most individuals would name it at the moment.” However not essentially Ms. Pelosi. “She loves the sport,” he stated. “She hates to lose.”

“The way it ends?” he mused. “I don’t suppose even she is aware of the reply.”