State Sen. Scott Wiener's campaign refused to let a Mission Local reporter into its election-night watch party on Tuesday, then reversed course about an hour later, Mission Local reported.
Reporter Io Yeh Gilman was stopped at 7:20 p.m. at the doors of the Swedish American Hall, where Wiener and his supporters were watching results. Mission Local said the campaign cited what it saw as unfair coverage of Wiener's position on Israel and Palestine. In a follow-up call, editors were told the outlet served as "Connie Chan's mouthpiece."
The San Francisco Standard reported the incident and later updated its story to say that Mission Local and Gazetteer SF were let into the party after its article was published. Gilman got in around 8:30 p.m., according to Mission Local."The decision to bar our reporter was unbecoming of a political official," said Mission Local executive editor Joe Rivano Barros. Tom Peele, who chairs the freedom of information committee of the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists, said Wiener "is embarrassing himself."
Ian Krager, a spokesperson for Chan's campaign, told the Standard that barring the outlets was "straight out of Donald Trump's playbook." Wiener went on to win the congressional seat.
Vote counts cited here are unofficial. Bay Area counties are still processing mail and provisional ballots, and results are not certified until later this month, so margins can change.