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Oakland Election News: Brooks File For Mayor, Kalb Endorses Maxson, De La Fuente Backs Tanios In D4

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In this Oakland Election News Update (and not “Oakland County” election news, Oakland, California election news) for Thursday, August 9th, Cat Brooks filed to run for Mayor of Oakland yesterday at Oakland City Hall (where else?). It was a big day for Cat, who’s successfully taken her activism against Oakland’s incumbent Mayor Libby Schaaf and transformed it into something way beyond that: a network of 500 volunteers and an engaged set of direct backers, and a different way of campaigning (that I’m still trying to wrap my head around).

That Brooks got this far is a problem for Mayor Schaaf because now Brooks has just done the one event that helps her get media coverage, and therefore more Internet searches, about her. Brooks’ one problem is that her effort did not hit a local social media search trend.

I have to take a moment and remark that it’s really head-scratching that so many have all of these free digital communications tools at their disposal and yet, don’t get that they have to think about planning to use them, designing an objective, and then using them and then measuring their impacts. Media today is a technical effort – anyone can write, but not everyone can or wants to code. But I digress. If Cat played this right, she could have blown the media doors off everyone on that day, but she’ll have other chances – if she makes them.

That said, Brooks did beat Mayor Schaaf by 7 to 5 on Google Trends for the past day, and 52 percent to 48 percent in search intensity. That, in itself, is a significant development – and it happened with an uncoordinated approach.


Of course, Google Trends does have its issues: it hates me, Zennie Abraham. Why do I say that? Because I inserted my own name, and also “Zennie62” (which is my online media effort), into the Brooks / Schaaf comparison just to see what the outcome would be, and discovered that I come up once in a while but then Google Trends did not even list my freaking name in the legend! Can you believe that?

Meanwhile, “Zennie62” averaged a “2” for the past seven days of data.


I’ve often wondered about online engineers expressions of racism, in other words, the notion that some one could try and code you out of search results – could it be that someone at Google has it in for me? I’ll investigate that later – back to the news.

Dan Kalb Endorses Nayeli Maxson For Oakland City Council District Four

Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb (District One) endorsed Nayeli Maxson for Oakland City Council for the District Four Seat on Wednesday, via social media. “I’m proud to endorse Nayeli Maxson for Oakland City Council District 4. I know her to be a thoughtful leader and collaborative problem solver. She is a highly qualified candidate, with a demonstrated commitment to public service, extensive knowledge of the district and its environmental and public safety issues, and broad support from District 4 community leaders.
These traits combined with her professional mediation skills make her an ideal councilmember and colleague. Nayeli has my wholehearted support.”

Maxson responded “Thank you to Councilmember Dan Kalb for this fantastic endorsement! Councilmember Kalb carries a stellar track record of authoring and passing progressive and environmentally-conscious legislation for the City of Oakland. I wear his endorsement with great pride!”

“I’m proud to endorse Nayeli Maxson for Oakland City Council District 4. I know her to be a thoughtful leader and collaborative problem solver. She is a highly qualified candidate, with a demonstrated commitment to public service, extensive knowledge of the district and its environmental and public safety issues, and broad support from District 4 community leaders. These traits combined with her professional mediation skills make her an ideal councilmember and colleague. Nayeli has my wholehearted support.” -Dan Kalb Oakland City Councilmember. Thank you to Councilmember Dan Kalb for this fantastic endorsement! Councilmember Kalb carries a stellar track record of authoring and passing progressive and environmentally-conscious legislation for the City of Oakland. I wear his endorsement with great pride! #OakD4 #hitthegroundrunning!

A post shared by Nayeli Maxson (@nayelimax) on

Wow. That’s a pure score for Nayeli Maxson, who worked for Oakland District Four Councilmember Annie Campbell Washington. The fact that Kalb would endorse Maxson, but the outgoing Washington did not, even as Councilmember Washington’s first choice Chris Young backed out, is a head-scratcher. But, whatever, as they say, score a big one for Nayeli.

De La Fuente Endorses Joseph Tanios for Oakland City Council District Four

Maxson’s challenger Joseph Tanios called on Tuesday to announce that he received the endorsement of former Oakland City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente. But no tweet or comment from Ignacio himself.

Joe, step up your game, dude!

Tony Thurmond Scores Mayor Schaaf Endorsement

Current California State Assemblyman Tony Thurmond (15th District) tweeted that he gained the endorsement of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf in his bid for election as State Superintendent of Schools, along with an endorsement from the new San Francisco Mayor London Breed:

No word on if Thurmond backs Schaaf for re-election as Mayor of Oakland.

Marchon Tatmon Files For Mayor Of Oakland Run

Marchon Tatmon, whom I interviewed two weeks ago…

…officially threw his hat in the ring to run for Mayor of Oakland, announcing on Facebook his actions:

And then Tatmon wrote this:

From a little kid out the streets of Oakland since the age of 16- I had a dream and to follow that dream that I manifested back then to now and really run- it took a lot of hard work but we here now. Now, lets cross this finish line strong and show the world- if you could dream it, you could achieve it!!

Saied Kamarooz Upset With Libby Schaaf’s Giant-Sized Campaign Funding Hauls

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is trying to scare off challengers with giant fund raising hauls, but the action is only serving to piss off one of them: Saied Kamarooz. He issued this tweet:

Jesse Smith Scores A First In Oakland

Jesse Smith who’s running for Mayor of Oakland, becomes the first mayoral candidate in Oakland history to actually cover a candidates forum, rather than be in it. He was the leading Twitter user in reporting the happenings at the Oakland Block By Block Network Candidates Forum at Allen Temple.

And Finally…

Stay tuned.