Oakland Mayor's Race: Don Perata wants Ron Dellums to declare intent

The latest news from the Oakland Mayor's Race comes in the form of a communication from Don Perata's Office specifically stating Perata's intentions with respect to participation in Oakland Mayor's Race candidate debates or forums.

The letter states the following:

I regret that I will not attend any mayoral forums until the official filing deadline for mayor has closed and the full field of aspirants is known.

Holding mayoral debates before all candidates are declared is undemocratic and misleads voters.

In particular, Mayor Dellums has yet to announce his intentions as is his right as an incumbent. The mayor is running for re-election until he says he's not, or when filing closes in August. Ron Dellums has served our community for almost four decades. He's well entitled to such consideration.

Sincerely,
Don Perata.

Presumably, Perata's statement also applies to Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, who's not offically said she's running for Mayor, even though she's reportedly participating in the Thursday forum.

The letter is also here.

Get Chis Kelly off my SFGate.com blog!! I'm for Kamala Harris!

California Attorney General Candidate Chris Kelly's people have smartly bought up a lot of Internet ad real estate in promoting Kelly's run for the seat currently held by Jerry Brown. But enough is enough. Chris Kelly's ad appears on the top of this blogger's SFGate.com / San Francisco Chronicle website blog.

It wasn't placed there after consultation with this space, so here's the message: ZENNIE ABRAHAM IS NOT VOTING FOR CHRIS KELLY. I'M VOTING FOR KAMALA HARRIS.



Ok. And yeah, screaming.

Chris Kelly does not have the connections or the experience to be a good top lawyer for California; Kamala Harris does. Being California Attorney General is not an issue of evaluating the legal impact of Facebook code, as was the case when Kelly was Facebook's legal representative.

Being California Attorney General is about knowing who to call, when, and why to accomplish an objective for people in a region. There's little if anything in Chris Kelly's background that shows he can do this.

By contrast, Kamala Harris, the current District Attorney for San Francisco, has shown an ability not just to make sure conviction rates for violent offenses are up, but also to increase services to help victims of crimes. Moreover, Kamala Harris has been particularly focused on fighting human trafficking; something Chris Kelly does not mention as a primary focus at all.

Get Chris Kelly's ad off my blog!

Thanks!

Oakland Mayor's Race - Don Perata out of candidates forum Thursday

Make it seven competitors in the Oakland Mayor's Race upcoming debate as Don Perata bows out of the Thursday, June 10th Oakland Mayoral Candidates Forum sponsored by 100 Black Men of The Bay Area.

But what's interesting behind the reason, according to a very good source, is that the Perata camp gave a weird reason for not wanting to participate in what they thought was going to be an Oakland Mayor Candidates Forum in September, even thought the source claims Perata was not asked officially to do so.

The Perata Camp said that as current Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums had not actually announced what he was going to do, run for another term as Oakland's Mayor, or not (even as some have told this blogger he was going to run again), Perata didn't think it was fair to participate in any forum. Seriously.

At the time, the source was surprised Perata was going to be in the 100 Black Men-sponsored forum. Perata is not going to be there as of this writing. That's a mistake.

Perata's starting a string of mistakes that stem from the 20th Century Old Media idea that everyone in Oakland's pay attention to what he does. Not true. It's a different media world, and by not participating in candidates' forums, Don Perata takes away yet another media content development opportunity for himself.

Not smart.

Oakland Mayor's Race - Maya Dillard-Smith out; Don Perata's errors

Don Perata 

The Oakland Mayor's Race which once featured ten candidates - Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time - is now down to nine. Sources who know her told this blogger Maya Dillard-Smith has elected to drop out of the race.

Not to be mean, but to be critical, Maya Dillard-Smith stood a better chance in the Oakland Mayor's Race with a real website and a good Internet strategy. She did not have one. Her only real Internet marker was a Facebook page called "Maya for Mayor." The problem with the growth of Facebook is anyone thinks that a Facebook page can do as a serious Internet marker. It can't and it doesn't.

When you do a Google search for Maya Dillard-Smith, a website that reads "Maya Dillard-Smith for Mayor of Oakland" should pop up. It doesn't because there's not one. A simple website, or a free blog on Blogger.com or Wordpress and with connected YouTube and Blip.tv video channels fed with weekly content is enough to not just have an Internet path but visibility in the Oakland Mayor's Race.

The problem is that all of the candidates don't get the Internet, and that's especially true of Don Perata, who thinks his Old Media strategy works in the 21st Century; it doesn't and he will lose the Oakland Mayor's Race because of his errors.

Google Don Perara and you find not just the good news on the first page, but the bad news: three of the first ten listings are negative and directly related to the Don Perata running for Mayor of Oakland. The second page of the search is dominated by content produced by others; nothing by Don Perata.

The point is that if you're going to run for elected office, produce Internet content about yourself. Make yourself available for video interviews and do your own. Have a blog or a few. Flood the Internet with your own content so that you control the message.

Maya Dillard-Smith for Mayor was all but invisible online. Don Perata online spells 'bad candidate.' Both are examples of why the Oakland Mayor's Race is wide open and can be snatched and won by a person with an intelligent Internet strategy.