Hello dear voters,

Apologies that this guide is coming late in the game. If you’ve already voted, congratulations! 

We’re late because of travel and the usual work-related reasons, and we thought this guide would be easy because the ballot is so short. So much for that theory. The Oakland mayor’s race is more challenging than we expected… although we ended up at a perhaps predictable conclusion. The other two races (Council District 2 and Measure A)  are also very important, and we didn’t want to skip an election, so better late than never for at least some of our readers. 

Hanging over everything in this election is our city’s structural budget deficit. The word “structural” here means this is not just a rainy day. The deficit is longstanding and baked in, and therefore not really fixable without painful sacrifices and compromises. If our leaders fail to right the ship, we could end up in bankruptcy and/or state receivership…and that is why this is a very high-stakes election. 

Oakland Mayor: #1 Barbara Lee, #2 Loren Taylor

We are endorsing Barbara Lee. Like so many Oaklanders, we hope that her political clout and connections, her ability to bring people together across the local political spectrum , and the respect she commands after a lifetime of service to our community will enable her to broker solutions to the City’s fiscal crisis. She has a hopeful vision that we can attract more private, public, and business investment, while being clear-eyed that there are also problems to solve, revenue to collect that’s been left on the table, and efficiencies to find within government operations. The broad coalition of people and leaders across the city and beyond who support her is quite powerful, and we’ll need all of them to work together for solutions. 

Loren Taylor has impressed us more than we expected in this campaign, though he has the reputation of being a moderate in the context of Oakland politics. Especially given the budget crisis, many of his plans and proposals sound reasonable and pragmatic—like refinancing Oakland’s debt, simplifying and speeding up permitting, and negotiating vendor contracts over $5 million. Despite what all the mailers say, he and Lee have very similar positions on policing and the size of the police force. However, we still have concerns about some of the groups and individuals supporting him, as well as about Empower Oakland, the group he founded that made some highly questionable endorsements in the last election. Taylor says Oakland is broken, and wants to come in and clean house—a contrast with Lee’s more optimistic approach. 

Still, if you sense equivocation, you are right. The City’s budget deficit makes the stakes of this election really high. And as a result, we have some anxiety about Lee’s ability to deliver on the high expectations. She’ll be 79 years old when she takes office, and didn’t seem as sharp at debates as we would like. Being a member of Congress is really different from being the Mayor of a troubled city, and we were all disappointed at how Ron Dellums failed to deliver after we supported him enthusiastically in 2006. Solving the budget crisis will likely require Lee to disappoint some longtime friends and supporters (like organized labor), and  reluctance to make bold and controversial decisions could be crippling. Taylor might bring more rigor, energy, and independent thinking to the job, but he carries risks as well. He certainly lacks the level of trust, reputation, and connections that Barbara Lee has. Will the Governor or other powerful leaders jump to pick up the phone when he calls? Loren who? Why has nobody on the City Council endorsed him? What if he ushers in more moderate, reactionary policies or more austerity than is needed? We don’t know him well enough to make a leap of faith. 

At the end of the day (and this voter guide), we’ll put our hope and faith in Barbara Lee. And we’ll remember it’s the City Council, not the Mayor, that has ultimate control over the budget that will be passed in June (the Mayor only votes to break a tie). This is a short term, just 18 months’ til November 2026 and another Mayor’s race. Let’s hope our city is in a better place by then!

City Council District 2 – #1 Charlene Wang, #2 Kara Murray-Badal

Edie listened to candidate forums, read the Oaklandside and newspaper endorsements, and has come to the conclusion that either Charlene Wang (pronounced like “wong”) or Kara Murray-Badal would be an excellent council member. Charlene Wang ran for the at-large seat in November and she impressed us then, as now. Here is what we said about her in November:

Wang has spent her career working in all levels of government, launching new social programs around homelessness, education, healthcare, and environmental justice. Edie’s favorite is the federal Reconnecting Communities Program that reimagines and revitalizes neighborhoods destroyed by racist transportation projects of the past. Tearing down the 980 Freeway and turning it into a greenway and economic hub that serves the West Oakland community is a great example of a project like this. 

Wang has a lot of energy and good ideas, and just as important, she does not seem to be aligned with either the progressive faction on the Council, or the reactionary moderates who are making a serious attempt to regain power in Oakland. 

Kara Murray-Badal grew up in District 2, is now a housing policy wonk at Terner Labs. Similar to Wang, she has been doing good public interest work her whole career up to this point. She was recruited to run, and has the support of a few more labor unions than Wang, though many of their endorsements are shared (since orgs, like us, can endorse multiple candidates for ranked choice voting). 

They both seem great, but Wang may have a better grasp of some policy details. Edie is intrigued/hopeful about her potential independence. Troublingly, in the East Bay Times’ endorsement of Wang, they said Murray-Badal “struggled to answer questions about police staffing levels” was unable to recall whether she voted for Measure NN in November. The SF Chronicle made a glowing endorsement of Charlene Wang, saying she is one of the sharpest, most impressive candidates they’ve seen in recent years from anywhere in the region. 

YES on Measure A – We don’t like sales/use taxes as a rule, because they’re regressive (poorer people feel them more than richer people do). However, this extra half-cent use tax is being put forward as part of the solution to the budget deficit, so if it fails the City will just have that much deeper a hole to dig out of. This tax is predicted to raise almost $30 million a year for the general fund, which will be used for vital public services. 

Fun fact: a sales tax is collected at retail points of sale in California. This is a use tax, collected on online transactions Oaklanders make for out-of-state goods that will be used, stored, or consumed in CA. Consumers only pay one of those for a given good, not both. The fact that Measure A imposes a use tax increase is probably an indication of the decline of retail in Oakland—not a good sign for our neighborhoods!