One Oakland

This is a post for my homies (+ civil rights fans!)

Mar 10, 2025

In these turbulent times, we’re in the thick of it here as usual in Oakland, where some very serious post-pandemic nonsense has upended our city. These are my thoughts on the upcoming April 15th special election, literally DAYS away.

The mayoral recall now seems justified with Sheng Thao et. al. under indictment, though the crimes she’s charged with seem profoundly picayune compared to what federal leaders are doing bigly. I’ve got my thoughts sorted out, and hope they can provide some guidance to my fellow voters.

I attended the Oaklandside’s mayoral panel on Zoom last week and took copious but imperfect notes.

Here are my takeaways and recommendations on the candidates, starting with

Mindy Pechenuk. She’s an interesting and passionate elder who is against the “green agenda” and “wokeism” and will happily support ICE raids. To her, drugs are the main adversary against the self-esteem of our children, and she blames Thao and Harris for them.

Renia Webb scolded the audience for laughing at Pechenuk for her praise of DOGE. In fact, every time she had the mic, she scolded or shamed someone—her detractors, Oakland Promise, the A/V staff members struggling with tech. She seemed to be campaigning against Thao, or against the Oaklandside for it’s “fake news….” She strutted around the stage, quoted rap lyrics, rhapsodized about music and her family, alluded to news I haven’t heard—and halfway through left the panel to care for her sick son saying “I’m going to be your next mayor but I’m leaving now. I don’t have time for the games.” Definitely the most entertaining candidate—but she’s also off my list.

The next three on my list are all inspiring, cool Oaklanders who really care.

Suz Robinson is wonky and super knowledgable about the budget and the toxic OPD culture. She had some really great points, such as this one: Oakland is run by volunteers. There are 40 city committees (which I don’t think is a bad thing; civic engagement is an enduring community value), and employees are not accountable (definitely a bad thing). She used the words, “evidence based,” which was a plus, about the Haven for Hope solution. I liked her quote, “Oakland is Ground Zero in battle for planet.”

Elizabeth Swaney is the most fun of all the candidates. She’s a comedian, a stuntworman, and a former Olympian. Super energetic. I love her proposal to connect parts of the city via aerial gondola. Swaney suggested offering tax incentives for volunteering. She says she’s unaffiliated with any party and “would be happy to talk to Trump, Newsom, anyone that would help Oakland move forward.”

Eric Simpson is deep and thoughtful. His perspective is from Labor—he’s worked in the chocolate industry (so kind of a hero for me personally) and is with Socialist Worker’s Party. Every answer focused on the power of the working class to overcome barriers and unify against billionaires. He sees Oakland’s problems as universal and class-related. Very compassionate and anti-hatred.

None of these good people have held political office. If you’re looking to vote for a fresh outsider, put one of these three at the top of your ranked choice ballot, and if you are hard right, Mindy’s your only choice.

But if you want someone with government experience, now we come to the frontrunners.

Loren Taylor has served one term on city council, making him the “authority” on the stage. He attacked both Thao and Lee in his opening statement. I was struck by his combative word choices: “boots on the ground,” “tip of the spear” “Oakland is broken.” I did like his statement around the arts that Oakland has a strong brand globally and we “need to leverage our brand,” though I’m not sure what that specifically means.

Barbara Lee was soft-spoken but carried a very big stick. Her answers to the questions were broader and more specific than anyone else’s. As our congresswoman of 30 years, she’s got a greater working knowledge and longer history of bringing money to Oakland (the Firestorm, AIDS crisis, La Raza Clinic, Fruitvale Transit Village, our thriving Green Port, BART to the Airport—the list is very long) and how city money works. She too wants to close loopholes and right-size the police. The inspiring solutions she offered for our homeless population were: Universal Basic Income (which I don’t know could be implemented by the City), and making sure the VA and other federal agencies step up, since we have 400 veterans on the streets. After everyone else had answered the final audience question, “Why do you want this impossible, thankless job?” she said, with a smile, “I don’t think this job is impossible OR thankless!”

My overall impression was that, while all of the candidates really love Oakland and come from a good place, there was only one grownup in the room.

Barbara Lee is a proven leader with vast experience and a truly unifying vision with her “One Oakland” motto. Whereas half the candidates came from a business development perspective and suggested solutions in public/private partnerships (furthering the privatization of Oakland, which scares me), Lee is great at accessing people, companies, foundations for grants, donations, and whatever government funding may be out there (on both state and federal levels). While Taylor suggested a Woodsy the Owl approach to stopping litter (adorbs), only Suz and Lee talked about specific bond measures (NN). A only Lee was jazzed about getting all the money that’s coming Oakland’s way from Measure W, whatever that is—and creating jobs to clean up the blight.

In full disclosure, I endorsed Lee when she first decided to run, because I was one of those people who was crushed she was out of a job when Adam Schiff won the senate seat. She’s still rarin’ to go to do right for people, and we’d be crazy lucky to have her wrap her loving arms around her home town, crazy not to elect her. But it was weird how many of my friends responded, “But she’s too old.”

And, “Yes but does she really have the skill set needed as mayor?”

And, “But Ron Dellums.”

So, I attended the Oaklandside forum to challenge my bias. The next week, I went to Lee’s campaign kick-off at the Grand Lake Theater—where she called Alan Michaan up on stage at the end to talk about how they’d used the theater (43:18) to gather truck loads of donations for Hurricane Katrina. (This was after many, many of our elected officials got up and praised her and expressed their support, most notably interim mayor Kevin Jenkins who talked about how much advice she’d been giving him and said, “We need her WAY more than she needs us!”)

And now I know exactly how to answer those questions.

“But she’s old.”

Yes. She’s 78! She looks 60. But at the microphone, her voice doesn’t boom anymore; in fact, she sounds a little breathless sometimes. I don’t know what her health problems are. But...I don’t know what any of the other candidates’ problems are, either. Two of them are also elderly, and Taylor had a whole new liver installed last year! (Of course no one is questioning why his liver failed—does that tell you who’s behind the doubt-spreading tweets?). And is it worth voting for the youngest, healthiest, most vibrant candidate (Sweeney), just in case? To miss this incredible opportunity to have the gravitas of Barbara Lee in city hall? America is super ageist right now, forgetting that as we age we gain more experience, wisdom, and insight, not to mention relationships and resources! Lee is also a legend. Her willingness to stand up to a red congress ready to blank check a war-hungry president put her on an iconic bumper sticker. Backbone is her brand. Our next mayor is going to need a spine of steel, with Trump in office, a looming deficit, and a city whose trust is shattered.

“But her skill set.”

None of the candidates have ever been a mayor. But Barbara has been working with Oakland mayors for 30 years. She knows the ins and outs of the job. She has the skills of understanding a budget, finding inefficiencies, building alliances, and, most importantly, building vision. Can we talk about vision? Lee is freaking inspiring! Taylor’s slogans are: “Oakland is broken.” “We need to make hard decisions,” and my favorite, “Solutions not slogans.” (Is this really a time to be cute?) I’d rather choose someone who can create capacity. Oh, Taylor also wants to invest in a public ethics commission. Lee’s on it…she has been a member of the House Committee on Ethics for years. She’s known for providing ethical guidance, making ethical choices. She also has the understanding of why we’re in a mess… and has ideas to correct the gaps that keep bucks from stopping.

“But Ron Dellums.”

People remember political lion Ron Dellums’ mayorship as a bit of a disaster. He was the big candidate in 2006 to replace outgoing Jerry Brown, who had held Oakland together reasonably well. He was much older than Lee, and had been retired for many years. But Lee is not Dellums. She’s not retired. She still has all her ‘live’ connections from her impressive tenure in congress, and is looking for somewhere to put her energy into action. She always learned from her mentor’s mistakes, and is very clear that she wants this job.

A few more observations.

Libby Likes Lee, not Loren

I don’t really trust Loren Taylor. By all accounts he’s a great guy, but I don’t like the people who like him. Seneca Scott is abusive. His nonprofit, Empower Oakland, is negative and narrowly focused against progressives. Taylor dealt with his loss to Thao by starting a recall less than a month into his former colleague’s term, backed by a meddling billionaire. Thao had walked into a shitstorm, having to immediately make a “hard decision” about the chief of police in her first week, and then handle a website hack that shut down the city. First of all, they made those things look like they were her fault. Second of all—can you really kick off a recall in three weeks? My last item on this list is personal— The “Libby and Loren machine,” as the old council called them, didn’t tap the brakes when Northeastern came to town. But now? Schaaf endorses Lee.

Lee Likes Loren

At Lee’s campaign kickoff last Saturday, everyone was very clear on her intention to run a positive campaign, though some talked back to the attacks she’s receiving. “Twitter comments are not testing Barbara… she’s fine. She’s strong. They’re testing YOU, to see if you are suggestible. Decide for yourself.” An old school pal I hadn’t seen for a while told me Taylor had kind of crashed one of Lee’s events—his local business supporters wanted him to get equal time—but she didn’t mind. One of her supporters (I can’t remember which, there were a lot) was even sweet about Taylor. “Why is he running against her? He should be resting. Then, he should come work with her.” Maybe all the other candidates will, too. Maybe we all will. Barbara Lee wants to unify Oakland. She wants to heal our divides, bring back our joy. She wants to remind us who we are.

I want what’s best for my Town. There’s a lot to do. We need to do it together.

Here’s Barbara Lee’s website.

You can donate up to $650.

Have I convinced you to vote for her? If so, please share this article with five friends and neighbors. If not, please come to my house next Saturday, March 15th, to meet her, if she’s available.

Email me at kbc@littlepig.com for address and time.

If she can’t make it (time is short), we’ll still talk about what we want for Oakland, and watch Abby Ginzberg’s award-winning documentary, Truth to Power.

Non-homeys! Thanks for reading this far! You can watch it online!

This is an important election. We don’t want to miss this chance. Please join me and VOTE, CONTRIBUTE, AND VOLUNTEER for Barbara Lee!