Jesse A. J. Smith, this author’s guest on Zennie62 On YouTube Live, this past Wednesday, May 23rd, (and which you can watch above) said be was a running for Mayor of Oakland as a “single issue candidate” who’s singular focus has been on improving the Oakland Police Department.
The Occupy Oakland member (yep, it still exists folks) says OPD is the most powerful political institution in the City of Oakland, the one with the most money, and he says is out of control. On the livestream interview, Jesse said that “OPD is involved in drugs and pimping,” referring to the Celeste Guap Scandal involving the underage woman who was taken advantage of by a number of officers “We’ve got to get control of it,” Smith said.
Mr. Smith is running for Mayor of Oakland for the first time, and he’s doing it on the cheap: he has no website, not even a free one, and openly points out that the best way you can reach him, or read about his platforms and ideas, is via his Twitter account: @OakSmith2018.
Jesse explained what motivated him to run for Mayor: “I started something called the “Get Free” project, which is still going on, and is being ran by other people. They are training candidates for 2020. I’ve always pushed people to be candidates. After a while, I’ve ran capaigans in the past and I saw my ideas being used, and thought ‘I am just going to have to get out there and do this myself.’” He says running for Mayor is something he feels he needs to do for the community. “There needs to be radical change,” in how Oakland deals with its many problems, he says.
Smith, 29 years old, is an interesting person – a truly different sort of dude running for Mayor of Oakland. He doesn’t expect to win, but would be happy to get enough votes to be Mayor. He says he has but one concern (which I will get to below) but is very conversant on various Oakland problems and issues. He isn’t seeking giant donations, but won’t turn donations away. He doesn’t have a full plan for Oakland, but is open to melding the idea of others into a mix that centers around his core concern – which I’ll mention below.
And, most notably, Jesse wants to communicate that the process of running for Mayor of Oakland is something every Oaklander should know, and can easily do. To the end of showing that’s so, he has pinned this thread on his Twitter account:
In this thread, I document my process for running for mayor. I encourage you to run as well, and hope this can help. Please contact me here with questions, corrections, or insights.
This thread will be updated as I take steps in this process.
— Jesse Smith for Mayor (@OakSmith2018) March 8, 2018
Take time to watch the one-hour and 22 minute talk with Jesse and make up your own mind regarding his run for Mayor of Oakland.
Stay tuned.