Strange new drama as the Recall Joel Engardio campaign enters the final days of its signature-gathering, as State Senator Scott Wiener claims that Aaron Peskin is secretly running the recall. Peskin responds that “Scott Wiener is full of shit.”
We are now less than one week until the deadline for the Recall Joel Engardio campaign to either submit the required 10,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, or else admit defeat and walk off into (wocka wocka) the Sunset. And on Wednesday, the recall’s head organizer Vin Budhai abruptly resigned from his position, which would sure seem to indicate that the recall is in disarray, and stumbling at the finish line.
But that’s not how Engardio’s political allies see it. The Chronicle reports that longtime Engardio supporter and State Senator Scott Wiener is making the puzzling accusation, without much evidence, that former Supervisor Aaron Peskin is secretly orchestrating the campaign to recall Engardio.
The mask is now off on the effort to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio: Aaron Peskin — who has quietly pushed the recall for months — has now formally taken it over & installed his own lieutenants. We need to be clear on what this recall is about & why Peskin is now leading it: 🧵
— Senator Scott Wiener (@scottwiener.bsky.social) May 15, 2025 at 6:04 PM
“The mask is now off on the effort to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio: Aaron Peskin — who has quietly pushed the recall for months — has now formally taken it over & installed his own lieutenants,” Wiener posted to Bluesky Thursday night. His thread continues that “The recall is becoming a NIMBY effort to stop the positive progress at City Hall, where we have a Mayor & Board of Supervisors working collaboratively on housing, transit, public safety & other key issues facing San Francisco. Peskin & his allies want to stop that forward-looking progress.”
Thank you @Scott_Wiener.
— Joel Engardio (@JoelEngardio) October 22, 2022
"I'm endorsing Joel Engardio for supervisor because the years he spent advancing Democratic values and LGBTQ rights under fierce resistance will serve him well. Our city needs leaders who can take the tough stands for creating our best San Francisco." pic.twitter.com/8yM8pbMjZX
We noted that Wiener and Engardio have long been allies. Wiener has endorsed Engardio in many an election, dating all the way back to 2016, if not earlier.
Wiener further elaborated on his conspiracy theory in direct remarks to the Chronicle. “I have good, reliable information that Peskin has taken over complete control of the recall campaign and that’s why we saw the recent staffing changes,” Wiener told that paper.
When pressed for specifics, Wiener said he was “referring to a number of things that I know” and “I’ll leave it at that.”
The ever-loquacious Peskin responded in profane terms that make me happy that I work for a publication that is allowed to print vulgarities.
“Scott Wiener is full of shit,” Peskin told the Chronicle. “The reality is, if I was running this campaign, it would have qualified [for the ballot] a month ago.”
“If I wanted credit for this, I’d be singing from the rooftops,” Peskin added. “These guys are just trying to create some kind of boogeyman because they can’t face the fact that Engardio fucked up with his constituents and now is having to deal with it. It ain’t my problem.”
And as the Chronicle notes, it makes no sense for Peskin to want Engardio recalled. If Engardio is recalled, Mayor Daniel Lurie appoints the replacement. The centrist Lurie is not going to appoint anyone who is in any way politically aligned with Aaron Peskin, other than maybe just being a registered Democrat.
That said, the tech-affiliated political pressure group GrowSF does spell out an at least marginal theory of Peskin involvement.
GrowSF wrote in a Tuesday blog post that freshly resigned recall manager Vin Budhai “handed over the reins to longtime Aaron Peskin ally and staffer Jamie Hughes. Other Peskin staffers, Otto Pippenger and Forrest Cameron, also have key roles in the recall.”
We can confirm that Hughes, Pippenger, and Cameron did indeed all work for Peskin’s 2024 mayoral campaign. But that’s just how political operatives work. When one campaign is over, they find another campaign to work for. And Scott Wiener and Joel Engardio both have enough experience cozying up to recall campaigns to know this.
Moreover, we reported earlier this week that Engardio’s campaign has paid GrowSF $39,272 to make video ads and digital advertisements for him to fight the recall effort. GrowSF is making bank off Engardio, so they’re hardly a credible source for unbiased reporting on this campaign.
For his part, the name-checked recall organizer Jamie Hughes told the Chronicle, “I have worked for different campaigns over the years and I was brought on the recall by the local committee in D4. Not anyone else.” He added that “This is just a last minute effort from big politicians and special interest groups to try to distract the voters. We are 100% focused on getting the signatures. This issue is about Joel Engardio betraying his constituents.”
GrowSF’s Tuesday blog post also contains a surprising admission, even if it was not meant as such.
The GrowSF blog post says that “The replacement of Budhai with Peskin's team indicates two things to us: 1) The recall is likely to qualify and 2) Peskin wants to take credit for it.”
Folks, that sounds like a pre-emptive waving of the white surrender flag that Team Engardio realizes the recallers are “likely” to meet their goal of 10,000 qualified and validated signatures, and that this recall election is now a foregone conclusion.
And perhaps it also telegraphs that Engardio and his allies’ new strategy is to blame the whole thing on Aaron Peskin, and hope that argument somehow resonates with District 4 voters.
Images: SF Board of Supervisors
