Oakland – Rebecca Kaplan has retained her At-Large seat on the Oakland City Council. With unofficial results showing her with a lead, her opponent called her this morning to concede the race congratulating her on her new term on the Council. Also congratulating Kaplan on her victory was Councilmember Nikki Bas who said, “Congratulations to … Read more
ONN – Oakland Community Leaders Speak Up With Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan: Press Conference
Rebecca Kaplan is joined by Community Leaders speaking out against the attempt by wealthy corperations to buy our elections in Oakland and in California. With the recent big money attacks against Kaplan by Lyft, community leaders stand in solidarity and in support for Kaplan’s re-election for the Oakland At-Large Council seat, and also for the importance of voting NO on Prop 22.
Speakers in order of appearance:
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan
Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez
Assemblymember Ash Kalra
Labor Leader Art Pulaski
Candidate for Oakland City Council District 3 Carroll Fife
VP Alameda Labor Council Gary Jimenez
Sierra Club Representative Igor Tregub
OUSD Board District 1 Candidate Sam Davis
OUSD Board District 3 Candidate VanCedric Williams
Press Conference held Monday October 5, 2020 via Zoom.
kaplanforoakland.org
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a YouTube channel. When the video is “liked” by Zennie62 YouTube, then it is automatically uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective here, on top of our is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours – is the use of the existing YouTube social graph on any subject in the World. Now, news is reported with a smartphone and also by promoting current content on YouTube: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary, or having a camera crew to shoot what is already on YouTube. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
In the 2020 Oakland Elections, Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is facing a major challenge from friend and perennial campaigner Nancy Sidebotham, and newcomer Derreck Johnson.
Nancy is an incredible member of the Oakland political world, but her main advantage is in pointing out problems, less than offering solutions. I like Derreck Johnson, and his run represents a need for more black male participation in Oakland politics. That said, he has no previous Oakland political experience at all, and no knowledge of municipal governance. As much as his efforts and his errors in business are good teachers for him, and for anyone entering politics, and draw media racism he’s not ready to lead Oakland at this point in time, Moreover, he’s the latest manchurian candidate offered up by my godsister Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Libby should just work to make friends with Rebecca. I’ve said that before, I’ll say it again.
Anyway, when I think of Rebecca, I think of what I contend is her signature, lasting effort. The one that shows good Oakland City Council work in action: The Broadway Free Transit Shuttle that’s now an Oakland institution.
I also think of the many ideas she’s formed to help Oakland’s budget, as well as the many, many small efforts she has made to ease the lives of Oaklanders. It does not matter if it’s a City Council motion that passes, or co-authoring legislation to get Oakland’s speeding problem under control, the fact is, the total number of legal changes she has made for Oaklanders has not been effectively chronicled. The point is, experience matters.
The Oakland City Council faces the very real prospect of having a membership consisting of no one with over one year of experience. And that’s in the middle of a Pandemic. Rebecca must be re-elected to assure the maintenance of institutional memory, so that current political biases don’t cause a misunderstanding, and there fore a mishandling, of government. How to work with Oakland City Staff is more important than anything. Hiring the right people to represent the councilmember is equally more important than anything. We’re in the dark with Derreck Johnson, and even my friend Nancy Sidebotham – but not with Rebecca Kaplan, the Oakland City Council President.
With all of that, why is Rebecca opposed? Well, I will say that she gained the backing of the Democratic Party, as well as a list of notables the party pointed to: “SEIU Local 1021, the Sierra Club, Block by Block Organizing Network (BBON), Former State Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, California Nurses Association (CNA), Firefighters Local 55, Northern California Carpenters Regional Council, Black Women Organized for Political Action PAC, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), Alameda Labor Council, Alameda County Building Trades Council, Sprinkler Fitters Local 483, Former Mayor Elihu Harris, Vice Mayor Larry Reid, President Pro Tem Dan Kalb, Councilmembers Sheng Thao, Nikki Fortunato-Bas and Noel Gallo, Oakland Port Commissioner Michael Colbruno, Founder of She the People Aimee Allison, Pastor J. Alfred Smith Sr., Reverend Harold Mayberry, California Young Democrats National Committee Representative Igor Tregub, Cat Brooks, and many more endorsing Rebecca Kaplan.”
I add myself to that list, and I am proud to endorse my long time friend. Rebecca and I have three things in common: first, we’re both ostracized to some extent for being ourselves, me as a straight, black, tech-oriented guy with a Jewish last name who “talks white”, she for being butch lesbian and Jewish. Then, we’re both urban planning and economics grad school grads from MIT for her and Berkeley for me, and we both love Oakland.
The 2020 Oakland City Council race gets stranger and stranger as documents show (it’s always “documents show”, huh) that the Alameda Labor Council and the AFL-CIO have formed a committee called “Oakland 2020 Committee to Replace Lynette Gibson McElhaney And Elect Carroll Fife and Rebecca Kaplan to the Oakland City Council, sponsored by Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO”. (For those of you who need a map, Lynette Gibson McElhaney is the currrent Oakland District Three Councilmember and Rebecca Kaplan is the current At Large Councilmember and President Of The Oakland City Council.)
According to the page I found on the Open Disclosure Oakland website, the organization has raised $293,000 to date. The contributors are all, strangely, union:
Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 95814 $90000 2020-09-10
Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 95814 $82000 2020-09-10
Unity PAC a Sponsored Committee of the Alameda Labor Council AFL-CIO Committee — — 94621 $50000 2020-09-16
Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 95814 $30000 2020-09-01
Unity PAC a Sponsored Committee of the Alameda Labor Council AFL-CIO Committee — — 94621 $25000 2020-08-20
Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 104 Political Committee Committee — — 94583 $5000 2020-09-07
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS LOCAL 595 PAC Small Contribution Committee — — 94568 $5000 2020-09-03
Steamfitters Local 342 Political Action Committee Committee — — 94518 $5000 2020-08-27
ESC Local 20 IFPTE Lou Lucivero Legislative Education & Action Program (LEAP) Sponsored by Engineers & Scientists of California Local 20 Committee — — 94607 $1000 2020-09-07
I write “strangely, union” because there’s no other contributor listed.
Conversation With Carroll Fife – Progressive For Oakland City Council, District 3
The Alameda Labor Council’s slate card shows, with respect to Oakland and the City Council races, the following choices:
Dan Kalb for District One
Carroll Fife (with no rank-choice #2, which normally would include the incumbent) for District Three
Noel Gallo for District Five
Treva Reid and Marchon Tatmon – Dual Endorsement for District 7
Rebecca Kaplan for At Large
For the Oakland School Board, the union group picked Sam Davis, VanCedric Williams, Michael Hutchinson, Ben Tapscott, and Measure QQ and Measure Y.
What’s Really Up With The Alameda Labor Council / AFL-CIO Union’s Decision To Back Carroll Fife Over Lynette Gibson McElhaney?
Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson Mcelhaney
But the decision to back Carroll Fife over Councilmember McElhaney is the focus of talk around town. While others have a point of view that reflects the sour taste of last year’s California State Democratic Convention outcome and the idea that the unions are trying to “take out” black women (an interesting view considering the backing of Fife and also Jovanka Beckles), I think it has more to do with Bernie Sanders.
Carroll Fife and a number of members of the Alameda Labor Council were big time Bernie Sanders backers, whereas Lynette’s a supporter of Joe Biden for President (and Fife has not come out in open support of Biden, even as he’s the Democratic Party leader and former SF District Attorney Kamela Harris is his running mate). And the Alameda Labor Council’s office space was used to help Fife during the Moms 4 Housing effort.
Still, the ties between the 2019 California Democratic Party election where Los Angeles labor leader Rusty Hicks won the party chair position, and held off a powerful drive from Richmond activist Kimberly Ellis, and the current Oakland City Council race, are not to be denied. There’s a lot of state-wide bad blood between a number of black female elected officials and the largely white AFL-CIO in the wake of Ellis’ loss. Last year, Both Lynette and Kimberly served on the board of Black Elected Officials Of The East Bay, with McElhaney, as Special Advisor to the Board according to The Oakland Post. (Note, Ellis texted me via Facebook “I was hired as a consultant to the org, I never served on its board.” A point of information not reflected in the year-old Oakland Post entry which served as reference.)
Carroll Fife should be careful who she partners with in this race. Her approach thus far is to discriminate in seeking political partnerships rather than cast a big tent and sell herself, explaining why she’s the best candidate, and to everyone, of every stripe. That strategy does not serve any elected official well when it comes to deal-making in office. Just consider how some in the Oakland City Council reacted to the allegedly immature behavior of one newcomer when that person did not get their way after a vote. That person’s efforts were largely marginalized during the last session.
Plus, Carroll could wind up being looked at as against any black woman who’s not exactly aligned with her agenda. At a time when a number of black women in California politics feel like they’re under attack, that’s not a good position for Ms. Fife to be in, and could be used against her in a big way. It is also a bad look for the Alameda Labor Council to have: the appearance of picking and choosing black female candidates in the wake of the Hicks / Ellis vote of last year. Indeed, it’s a problem that extends even to Kamala Harris herself.
The Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate is a part of the SF Bay Area Political Family, and so is very well known. I first met her in 2007, and even met up at Harry’s Bar on Fillmore for an early dinner. But, as her political career grew, it took on a pattern that many black women in the SF Bay Area Political Family don’t see as beneficial to them. Famed local lawyer Pamela Price put it this way in her blog:
In California politics, with very few exceptions, Kamala has not supported progressive Black women running for office. In 2017 and again, in 2019, we fought to elect Kimberly Ellis as the Chairwoman of the California Democratic Party. Kamala did not support Kimberly Ellis in 2017 or 2019.
In 2018, 2 Black women ran for Oakland Mayor. Kamala did not support either one of us. In the 2018 race for Assembly District 15 to represent Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and West Contra Costa County, there were 3 Black women running for State Assembly. Kamala did not support any of them. As a result, today, there are no Black representatives from the Bay Area in the California Legislature.
In three local races in 2018, Oakland Mayor, Assembly District 15 and Alameda County District Attorney, Kamala provided major support for all of the white women who won.
The Lesson: Make Friends With Everyone, And Not Just A Small Group Of People You Like
Oakland’s real problem is that too many so-called progressive and democratic socialist candidates are also too eager to make enemies where they really don’t exist. I am calculating the over-under on when this post of mine will be mischaracterized for political gain. One will say it’s anti-Lynette and the other anti-Carroll, and someone else will come up with some other crap. All will be wrong. Note: it’s a trap!
Word of warning: you’re elected to serve all of the people of your district, not just the ones you like.
UPDATE:
Oakland District Three Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney posted this entry on Facebook, tagging myself and this post:
Oakland – The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to send a new Oakland business tax structure law into motion by placing a measure on the November 2022 ballot. Oakland’s business tax structure has not seen a major overhaul in almost forty years. The Oakland City Council was united in its desire to see a progressive, … Read more
COUNCILMEMBER SHENG THAO ALONG WITH AAPI WOMEN LEAD AND COMMUNITY LEADERS ANNOUCE LAUNCH OF “PROJECT MASC FOR OAKLAND” TO FUNDRAISE AND DISTRIBUTE MASKS & OTHER RESOURCES TO OAKLAND COMMUNITIES Oakland – In partnership with AAPI Women Lead, theUCSF Center for Child and Community Health, UCSF Black Women’s Health & Livelihood Initiative, UCSF National Center of … Read more
