This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics gossip. To sign up, visit The Standard’s newsletter page.

Supervisor Connie Chan has often been treated as an afterthought in the congressional race, viewed by many as trailing in both money and momentum. State Sen. Scott Wiener and former tech engineer Saikat Chakrabarti are dominating headlines with their online clashes and campaign spending.

But a slew of new polls reveal that Chan is firmly in the mix for the second spot, essentially tied with Chakrabarti.

And that was before Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi spoke to Power Play about Chan’s prospects.

In a rare interview Thursday night at an Asian Pacific Islander Council event in Hayes Valley, Pelosi broke her silence and gave us a glowing review of Chan. A handful of Chinese-speaking reporters were present.

Pelosi said the prospect of electing the city’s first Asian American congressperson would be “very exciting.” She said she was delighted to attend Chan’s Washington, D.C., fundraiser, where the supervisor was supported by labor groups, Asian American lawmakers, and women's advocates.

“She really did very well there,” Pelosi said. “She'd be a great member of Congress.”

Polling shows that enough voters agree to keep Chan on pace with Chakrabarti. And not just one — it’s practically raining polls. Mission Local revealed (opens in new tab) the results of a poll commissioned by Chakrabarti’s campaign mid-April, Politico revealed (opens in new tab) a Chan internal poll Thursday, and the Chronicle dropped its own Friday.

All of the polls show Wiener ahead of the progressive candidates by double digits. While the Chakrabarti poll showed him leading Chan, with support from 28% of likely voters, vs. her 13%, the Chronicle and Chan polls show her in contention, with both candidates hovering within the margin of error of one another.

Now it's Power Play’s turn, as we report on a poll shared with us by one of the several Wiener-aligned PACs, which confirms the other polls’ metrics. This new voter survey, conducted in late April, shows Chakrabarti at 23% and Chan at 17%. Another revelation: Voters have a more negative perception of Chakrabarti since the beginning of his campaign, now at 10% of likely voters, a sign that attacks against him are breaking through.

As Sam Lauter, a principal at public affairs firm BMWL, told us last week, “anyone counting out Connie is making a mistake.”

Pelosi emphasized that she has not made a formal endorsement decision — perhaps, we’d speculate, waiting until after the primary.

“I thought, for a while, I'd just wait, watch, and see how the public reacted to the candidates for this seat,” Pelosi said. — Han Li & Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez

Got tips? Send them to us at [email protected].

SO LONG, RALPH: Arts Commission Director Ralph Remington has been ducking work since announcing he would step down at the end of June, employees at the commission told Power Play. Maybe he’s too busy dreaming of his beachside retirement in Panama, where he plans to move.

On Monday, Jen Atwood, a program officer for the commission, submitted a whistleblower complaint and called Remington out in public comment during a meeting.

"I have not seen Director Remington in the office for the past two months, outside of the hour before commission meetings, despite the mayor's four-day-a-week in-office mandate for city employees," Atwood said. “Where has the director been, and what has he been doing all this time other than writing and publishing his new book while collecting a city salary?"

The Standard spoke with two other employees at the commission who backed up Atwood's allegations that Remington — who in 2024 received $315,000 in total compensation and benefits, according to Transparent California (opens in new tab) — has, for the most part, ghosted his workplace.

"We've been told he still technically holds 'decision-making authority' for the agency, but he's not performing any of his duties — they've all been delegated to his deputies," said one employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.

Remington announced his decision to step down at a Feb. 2 commission meeting, less than a week after the arts czar role was posted. On April 9, Remington sent an email to commission staff warning that layoffs were imminent due to the city's budget deficit. Atwood told Power Play she was informed that she would be laid off.

Atwood is at least the second person to file a whistleblower complaint against Remington. In February 2025, David Mack, who served as managing director of the African American Art and Culture Complex, submitted a complaint alleging that Remington had berated him in a meeting and threatened to cut off funding for the AAACC.

Remington did not respond to requests for comment. An email sent to his account received an automated response: "Thank you for your message. I am out of the office, returning on Wednesday, May 13." —  Sam Mondros

THE GARRY AWARDS?: Garry’s List, the political group started by Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, has been largely quiet since he announced it in February. (As of Friday, it had barely broken 1,000 followers on X (opens in new tab).) But Power Play hears that will change Monday, when the “Rotary Club for radical centrism” will launch its official voter guide and an initiative it’s calling the “Civic Impact Awards.” 

The voter guide will be an aggregation of endorsements from other groups Garry’s List supports — the organization is holding off on making its own endorsements for now — including California YIMBY, the Abundance Network, SPUR, and the Bay Area Council. The awards, meanwhile, are an effort to spotlight California's “political micro-influencers” — the TikTokers, YouTubers, and newsletter writers who give the best information on state politics. (And yes, there is a category for best X account. This is Tan we’re talking about, after all.) In a statement, Tan said the purpose of the awards is to “elevate the people and tools actually helping voters make sense of what’s happening.”

Garry’s List will start accepting nominations from the public on Monday and will release a list of finalists for a vote the week before the primary; an awards ceremony will be held sometime after that. —  Emily Shugerman

BABY POOP: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new program with Mayor Daniel Lurie Friday to send 400 diapers home with every newborn family, much to the excitement of any new parents who’ve had to grapple with the price of nappies.

One speaker noted during the event that Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom understand the importance of diapers after changing “their fair share” of nappies when their four kids were young. Power Play asked Newsom how that squares with the early fatherhood memories recounted in his memoir, in which he wrote, “I could count on one hand the times I actually changed a diaper.” 

“Not as many as I could have,” Newsom said, admitting that an earlier draft gave him too much diaper-changing credit. “My wife, that was her one edit. That was not true.” 

As for Lurie? “I changed a lot of diapers,” Lurie said. “I was right there front and center.”  — Hannah Wiley