Families for an Affordable SF PAC — chaired by Scott Wiener's own campaign director — paid $29,611 to Conor Johnston and his firm Otter Brands for office work. Otter Brands' SF city registration expired in 2018 and it doesn't appear active in California's Secretary of State database. No contract has been made public.

A San Francisco super PAC backing State Senator Scott Wiener's congressional run paid nearly $30,000 in spring 2025 to the man behind the viral "Saikat lives in Maryland" van and his cannabis company — a firm whose San Francisco business registration closed in 2018 and which does not appear as an active entity in California's Secretary of State database.

Families for an Affordable SF PAC disbursed $28,611.37 to Otter Brands LLC on April 28 for "office consulting," then paid $1,000 directly to Otter Brands' owner, Conor Johnston, on May 5 for "office refurbishment," according to FEC filings reported by Gazetteer SF. The PAC reported total receipts of $275,000 during the same period. Johnston was identified via California DMV records — published by the San Francisco Chronicle in April — as the registered owner of the van that trailed Saikat Chakrabarti through primary season and has since been repainted to target Connie Chan: "I live in this van b/c Connie Chan hates housing."

The PAC's structural setup compounds the transparency questions. Families for an Affordable SF PAC was founded by Todd David, who simultaneously serves as the PAC's chair and treasurer and as Wiener's active campaign director. The committee operates under a 2024 FEC rule change enabling a super PAC and a federal campaign to share staff and coordinate canvassing — an arrangement that Shanna Ports, senior counsel for the Campaign Legal Center's campaign finance team, told Gazetteer SF in May "is contrary to a strong electoral system that ensures candidates are accountable to their constituents rather than big money and special interests."

PAC spokesperson Sam Singer offered a specific explanation in a statement to Gazetteer SF: the PAC hired Johnston for "land use consulting and tenant improvement management to help us locate, secure, and ready our campaign headquarters at 2055 Market St. for use," a space that previously housed Aaron Peskin's 2024 mayoral campaign and had its front windows boarded up. Singer said Johnston performed similar work on the PAC's Richmond District office, with a separate payment to appear in upcoming disclosures, and that the PAC is "fully complying with campaign finance law and properly reporting all expenditures and contributions." The Wiener campaign declined to comment through spokesperson Joe Arellano.

The documentation gap remains. Otter Brands LLC's San Francisco city business registration closed June 30, 2018, per public records at OpenGovUS. The entity does not appear as active in California's Secretary of State business search. No consulting contract detailing scope or deliverables has been made public; the nature of the work is described entirely through the PAC's spokesperson. Johnston did not respond to Gazetteer SF's multiple requests for comment.

No formal enforcement inquiry by the FEC or the San Francisco Ethics Commission has been confirmed. Singer's disclosure of a forthcoming Richmond District payment makes that next filing the clearest near-term test: whether the dollar amount and service description there track consistently with the 2055 Market St. account — or add a second anomalous data point to an already unusual pattern.