he was mayor of a city. state is governed by a governor. he wielded influence among sf elites, as sf was usually the stepping stone for prominent state and federal promotions, e.g. nancy pelosi uses sf to get her congressional seat, the late dianne feinstein used sf to get her senate seat, barbara boxer used marin county (county north of sf) to get her congressional seat then later her senate seat, gascon used sf to becum police chief, then da of sf, then da of los angeles (he just lost his seat), newsom used sf to get his mayoral seat first then ran for governor. willie brown is connected to all of them as he is the northern cal kingpin in recommending and promoting certain individuals to positions of power within the dem hierarchy. moreover, he’s black and able to draw the black vote in the bay area. for scamala to climb the ladder, she needed to win an important position in sf first. thus, willie helped her to becum da of sf in 2004. she used that pivot to becum ag of state in 2011 after vacating da sf. after boxer retired from the u.s. senate in 2017, she vacated her state ag position and took the senate seat. and then biden picked her as running mate thru the urging of nancy pelosi and influence from willie brown who was then retired to play kingmaker in dem politics.