Oakland Mayor's Race: Don Perata, Then Tuman, Kaplan For Mayor

Today marks the end of a long and exciting Oakland Mayor's Race. This blogger has talked extensively on and off camera with all 10 of the candidates, created over 300 minutes of video interviews, and read a lot of information on all of them. Former State Senator Don Perata who will be the best choice for Mayor. The simple reason is, for all of the issues lobbed at him, Perata is a leader who gets things done.

That written, political newcomer Joe Tuman is the second choice, followed by At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan. This was tough, because for a long time, Perata's run for Mayor was a surprise in that a higher office seemed the more logical direction - like Senator. But Perata, for some years now, has expressed desire to be Mayor of Oakland, got an early start, kept his focus, and never looked away. Perata followed the advise then-Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris gave to me more than once: make sure they're always talking about you. And everyone has. Meanwhile, Perata has been above the fray, talking about the need to support Oakland's police and bring leadership back to the Mayor's Office.

In Oakland, Perata has a lot of chits to cash in. When I left the City of Oakland after The Super Bowl, it was Perata who's support for me never wavered. Perata, from the time I was a columnist for The Montclarion to my work for Oakland, has never once turned his back on me. And that's true for a lot of people.

What swayed my vote to Perata was that others like some at the Welstone Democratic Club, were talking about Perata helping "big developers like Phil Tagami" as if that's a bad thing. First, Phil, who's a friend, is not a "big developer" but a hard worker. Second, I knew Phil when he was working in real estate and struggling to make it. Phil's an Oaklander who worked his way up, while some of the same people who are now in the Welstone Club were working for Oakland City Council people, and in some cases sleeping with them.

I'm sick and tired of Oaklanders pulling other Oaklanders who've made it down. It was the comments from those who were doing this, that was the final issue for me. Before that point, I'd considered Rebecca for a long time, and still feel she would do a good job as Mayor. But Rebecca doesn't have quite the gravitas that Perata has. Indeed, Joe Tuman has more. Moreover, Joe really get that people are upset with the Oakland Parking Problem. He will work to stop predatory parking, and I don't think Rebecca will do that.

Tuman is a surprise. A 29-year Oaklander who really has groomed himself into "Citizen Joe," a man who can lead Oakland. I've had hours of conversations with Joe and continue to be impressed with his grasp, not just of the issues, but of the structure and culture of Oakland leadership - that's rare.

Finally, I give a special tip of the hat to Green Party Candidate Don Macleay. As I wrote last week, Don's campaign effort has grown and matured and he's developed a "man of the people" brand, that had he started a year ago, could have pushed him into the Mayor's Office. Don's a good man who's an Oakland treasure.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Arnie Fields Hates Jerry Brown

Arnie Fields is, from this bloggers view, the unofficial Mayor of Oakland. The block of 7th Street that runs next to the BART tracks and contains the BART West Oakland Station, is marked by "Fields For Mayor" signs, all over the place. Only a billboard for "Marcie Fields For Mayor" provides a momentary break from the "Fields For Mayor" images. That, and Fields owns the popular Revolutionary Cafe that's in the middle of the block at 1612 7th Street, which also has his signs.

Arnie Field may not win the race for Mayor of Oakland, but Fields is certainly a force in Oakland. Arnie Fields is an energetic, friendly, and knowledgeable Oaklander who's primary reason for running for Mayor is his anger with former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who he describes as a "kook." This blogger reminded Fields that that "kook" was about to become Governor of California - or so it looked - and Fields said "I hope not." Arnie Fields blames Jerry Brown for making Oakland into what he says is "Gotham City."

That gives you some idea of the kind of conversation Fields and I had and is in the video above.

Arnie Fields Real Estate Guy

There are people who don't take Arnie seriously, but in meeting and talking with him at length, especially off-camera, that's a mistake. This effort has been as much for the objective of eliminating the stereotypes people in Oakland have about the candidates, and in Fields, I've succeeded. Arnie Fields is a married father of three children between the ages of 13 and 21 (two boys and one girl to "even out the testosterone in the house" as he said), who specializes in rehabilitating properties in Oakland. Arnie grew up in Oakland and eats, sleeps, and drinks the culture of our city.

He says that prior to 2000, there was "a house for everyone in Oakland," but Jerry Brown's 10K program - which caused the construction of market rate high density housing in downtown Oakland - took out that era of reasonably priced homes and made Oakland a place where such inexpensive single family home ownership is not longer possible.

Talking With Arnie

Arnie Fields talks started with a kind of introduction to the block of West Oakland he built. Pointing to a neighboring clothing business, he said "People come all over to buy her clothes, she's the best in the Bay. Come and visit her." Arnie says they brought in a bike shop and "the Berkeley Liberation Radio, which is right around the corner, on Peralta" as well as the Revolution Cafe.

Fields says the City of Oakland was trying to demolish the entire block; they saved it, he says, when he and his wife created a historic district. He blames Jerry Brown for getting rid of the old Lincoln Theater, and essentially trying to erase the culture and infrastructure of West Oakland. Arnie says it's wrong for the City to try and destroy its historic structures. Fields forcefully says Oakland has "the largest stock of historic buildings in the country."   Fields says the housing stock in Oakland is "almost 80 years old."

As you can see, Fields has so much to say and has done so much in Oakland, it's hard to keep him on the basic topic of running for Mayor of Oakland, but I did succeed. But it's also why Fields does not perform well in forums: his mind is all over the place, and forums can't pin him down by the way they're ran.

Arnie Fields Is Fighting Corruption

Arnie Fields says his run for Mayor is to root out corruption. In our talk, he pointed directly to the Community and Economic Development Agency and repeated what's become a common theme: that CEDA is corrupt and using fees on building owners to help the City of Oakland pay for services outside of its department responsibilities in areas like building permits and enforcement. If elected, Fields would kick out much of the CEDA management.

Fields also says he will "get rid of the blight ordinance" which he says causes buildings to be slated for demolition and have gotten rid of the inexpensive housing in Oakland. He says that Oakland's population has decreased because of these actions by about 10 percent. (Now, in 2010, Oakland's population is at 399,484, in 2005 it was at 395,274, which is a net increase. Sorry Arnie.)

Arnie Wants To Cut The Fat

Fields asserts that as Mayor he's going to cut 500 CEDA code enforcement officers that he will reduce to 250 positions. Arnie's more interested in shifting money from CEDA to public service, but overall he doesn't have a plan for reducing the deficit. "I want. We're going to become pro-business...cut the red tape," he says, "and eliminate the tax liability" Oakland has at present.

Fields wants to restore Oakland's old buildings to pass on affordability to Oaklanders.  "Before Jerry Brown showed up, you were able to rent a house in Oakland for $600 to $700 a month," he says, "the whole house."  

Fields As Mayor

Fields says his Mayor's office is going to be "a beacon of love and hope" for all.  He will thin down the Mayor's staff and be at all of the council meetings.   "We are going to have a zero-tolerance for litter" in Oakland.

Fields Supports BB

Arnie Fields supports Measure BB because he says "We need more education."   He also says he will push for a 100 percent high school graduation rate.

Fields Will Not Sue The A's

Fields does not want to sue the Oakland A's.   He wants to work with the A's to make them see the benefits of being in Oakland.

You can learn more about Arnie by visiting his website Fields4Change.com and watching the video.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Marcy Hodge Interview

Peralta Community College District Board Member Marcy Hodge has labored as one of the lesser known candidates, who's activity in the Oakland Mayor's Race was punctuated by having her sister Nicole Hodge file a defamation lawsuit against The East Bay Express. In the video interview, Hodge talks about why she decided to run for Mayor and her approach.

Hodge says she decided to run for mayor because she didn't think any of the candidates were talking about the issues Oaklanders were dealing with. "I didn't really feel really excited about the candidates."

She's ran a campaign that features billboards and lawn signs all over Oakland.  What's interesting is as this day approached, more and more "Marcie Hodge" lawn signs have appeared around Oakland.  A signal that some Oaklanders had not decided on a candidate and were swayed toward Hodge.

The East Bay Express and Hodge

Robert Gammon has, for some reason, consistently and dangerously attacked Hodge for running for Mayor of Oakland. Gammon has written that, for all practical purposes, Hodge is a "tool" of Oakland Mayor's Race competitor Don Perata, and asserted that overall her campaign is "illegal." What's interesting is that Gammon didn't make a matrix of what the other Oakland Mayor's Race candidates have done in filling reports, he just focused on Marcie.

While the charge was not supported by any Oakland legal official, just Gammon, and he caused the lawsuit with a series of sloppy blog posts, to his credit, Gammon came back with a very good and through follow-up last week.

The video was created before Gammon's latest work. In that one, Robert's done his homework and raises a good point Marcie should address. Marcie told this blogger she was going to file her financial reports last week. But with that, it doesn't explain why Gammon focused on Hodge in the way he did.

Improving Oakland

Hodge says the best way to reduce the Oakland budget deficit is to attract more businesses to Oakland and grow the tax base; she does not favor bankruptcy as an option. "We have to find creative ways of reducing the deficit...We need to look the way China does it (budgets). They plan (the budget) for 100 years."

On Oakland Sports

Hodge, like many of the candidates, does not favor using "public money" to retain the Oakland A's.  While she wants to retain them, she does not offer an alternative solution but wants to see "creative ways" to keep them.  Hodge doesn't favor suing the Oakland A's or the City of San Jose, favoring the approach of fostering a "cordial relationship" with both parties.

City And Mayor's Office Under Hodge

On the subject of City of Oakland morale, Hodge says that when there's no vision from the city's elected officials, there's no reason for workers to get behind the city and that impacts morale.  She's not willing to point at Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums by name, but does so by comments in our conversation.

On the matter of the Oakland Police, Hodge doesn't favor reducing police salaries and feels that they "take a beating" in the public eye.

The Hodge Candidacy

Marcie Hodge is a good person who's campaign, while marked by a single-person media attack, has been largely successful.  Why?  She's visible and attractive, which may be the reason she's getting attention from undecided Oaklanders.  Will all of that be enough to gain a substantial number of votes is the question of the day.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Video Interviews With All 10 Candidates

If you haven't made up your mind on who to vote for in the Oakland Mayor's Race on election day, today, this series of Zennie62 on YouTube videos should help a little.

They comprise over 300 minutes of conversations and 15 videos that in total make up the most ambitious video blog effort I've ever done.   The idea was to give you a view of all of the candidates, not just some of them.  (That effort's the biggest example of local print and television media prejudice and attempt to control information I've ever seen.  And if someone calls them by a name that brings up Nazi Germany, they'll start whining and crying, but at this stage, given their antics, I don't care what they think.)

So in honor of The San Francisco Giants as World Champions and Tim Lincecum, this blogger says FUCK YEAH! (OK. Lots of San Francisco street party hoping and killer videos in celebration last night, but I digress.)

The videos represents all of the candidates: Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Joe Tuman, Don Macleay, Don Perata, Councilmember Jean Quan, Larry Lionel Young, Arnie Fields, Marcie Hodge, Terrance Candell, and Greg Harland.  Plus, there' are two forum overview videos and one commentary on the Sierra Club forum when it was messed up, trying to segregate candidates from attending.  (Thank God that was corrected.)

The video playlist below has all of the candidates video interviews. The order does not indicate who this blogger endorses for Mayor of Oakland:



I will also post summaries of interviews conducted last week, and my recommendations, before 12 noon PDT.

Stay tuned.