Even Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to live in San Francisco anymore. If not the explicit excuse for her recent announcement to seek reelection, that is no less its consequence. And all things considered — in San Francisco and California — who can really blame her?

On Sept. 8, Nancy Pelosi announced that she will run again in 2024 to represent California’s 11th Congressional District. In making her bid for one of the nation’s wealthiest congressional districts, she wrote:

Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Fransisco values and further our recovery. Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL.

Yes, assuredly what is needed now is more of “San Francisco values.” Of course, political hyperbole is a hallmark of those soliciting votes, but, even so, this is a bit much. Further, it raises the question of why Nancy Pelosi feels compelled to run again to meet America’s “needs.” For the 20th time. (READ MORE: Doom Loop City of San Francisco)

For one thing, Pelosi is 83 now. She will be 84 when she runs again in 2024, and 86 when her 20th term ends. While it is said that age is just a number, those are still pretty big numbers.

There is certainly no novelty for her at this point. While her district’s number has changed like a lottery ball drawing — going from 5 to 8 to 12 to now 11 — it has always been San Francisco, and Nancy Pelosi representing it since she first won a special election in 1987.

Being San Francisco, there is no danger of it falling into conservative hands. It hardly needs Nancy Pelosi to hold it: Any politician to the left of Che Guevara will do — and such persons are hardly rare in California, let alone San Francisco.

Gone too are the trappings of power that she once enjoyed. She has held every office that House Democrats could bestow on her: leader of her party in Congress twice, and twice speaker of the House — both firsts for a woman. No longer. (READ MORE: Nancy Pelosi’s Other Legacy: A Mountain of Debt for Our Children)

Now she is just one of 435, despite House Democrats in November 2022 voting her “Speaker Emerita.” Really, she is Speaker Pecunia — i.e., “money.” Knowing where their bread is buttered, House Democrats decided to butter her up in turn. And she has raised a lot of bread. According to 2021 Fox News reporting, Pelosi had raised $1 billion for Democrats since assuming a party leadership position in 2002.

And she hasn’t stopped. On June 29, she headlined a virtual fundraiser for Arizona Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego. Just recently she told a Politico reporter: “You may not know this, but if you’re not a candidate, you really can’t raise money for yourself. And raising money for myself enables me to spend that on other people.” No word on how her constituents feel about this.

But, really, is the desire to raise money for others enough to tilt the scales toward staying on in Washington? It is when the realization that not doing so means returning to San Francisco. A hint at how bad things are in by the City by the Bay: One of the arguments of the city’s apologists is that things are not really that bad. And, for the record, they are.