Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:02] It’s kind of crazy to think that we are already at this point. Sheng Thao was recalled in November, which feels like so long ago now, but who’s been in charge since then? Can you remind us about that?
Alex Hall [00:01:16] Yeah, so there’s definitely been ongoing shifting in city leadership since Thao was recalled. The first interim mayor was Nikki Fortunato Bass, who was city council president. She was mayor from mid-December until early January, and then she was sworn in as an Alameda County supervisor, which, you know, she was elected to that post in last year’s election. City council member Kevin Jenkins, who represents District 6 and became council president, he then became interim mayor and he’ll be in that seat until we have a new mayor.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:03] I mean, I remember that during the recall of Mayor Sheng Thao, public safety was really the number one issue in Oakland. Is that still the case, I guess, in this mayoral election or have other issues risen to the top as well?
Alex Hall [00:02:20] I think it’s definitely still a big issue. Just in talking to voters on the street in my own reporting, people definitely still bring up public safety, number one. Together with public safety I think the budget is a major issue for people. The city is working to close a multi-million dollar shortfall in this year’s budget. making major cuts to fire stations, cutting jobs, dozens of jobs. And then together they’re also putting together a budget by June 30th that eliminates another major structural deficit that’s projected over the next two years. For voters who are paying attention, I think that is a major issue. And I think also housing and homelessness has come up a lot. There’s been a lot of candidate forums lately, and I think those three issues are probably. the biggest ones on people’s minds.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:18] Let’s talk about the candidates then. I know there’s quite a range of people. Tell us about who’s running.
Alex Hall [00:03:26] We’ve got former East Bay congresswoman Barbara Lee, who announced her candidacy in January. Mindy Pechenuk, who is a Trump supporter who has said that she would bring in DOGE to, you know, clean out the city’s finances. Suz Robinson with the Bay Area Council. Eric Simpson, who is a machine operator at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. He’s also a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party. Elizabeth Swaney, who is a comedian, barista, who also competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics on Team Hungary. Loren Taylor, former city council member who narrowly lost to Thao in the 2022 mayoral election. And then Renia Webb, who is a former city staffer. She worked for Sheng Thao as her chief of staff when she was on the city council. And then since then has alleged that she witnessed unethical behavior while working for Thao and is kind of called herself a whistleblower of sorts.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:31] It sounds like we’ve got quite a range of people. Who though is rising to the top?
Alex Hall [00:04:38] Well, I think that at this stage in the race, most people, if you ask them, they would say that this is a race between Barbara Lee and Loren Taylor. We went to the Oaklandside forum a couple weeks ago. The audience was able to ask questions and they were able to pose their questions to up to two candidates and every single question was posed just to Lee and Taylor. So I definitely get the impression from people that they’re primarily focused on it being a race between those two.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:05] Well, let’s talk then, Alex, about these top two candidates and I guess the kinds of things that they’re saying to convince voters to pick them, starting with Loren Taylor, remind us a little bit about who he is and what his biggest issues on the campaign trail are.
Alex Hall [00:05:21] Yeah, so, Loren Taylor is a former Oakland City Council member, you know, like I said, he narrowly lost to Sheng Thao in the 2022 mayoral election by less than 700 votes. It was a ranked choice vote.
Loren Taylor [00:05:34] Oakland is broken, and we are in need of immediate fixing.
Alex Hall [00:05:39] Taylor has definitely marketed himself as a professional problem solver.
Loren Taylor [00:05:45] I am excited to take my skills as an engineer, as a problem solver, as a former council member, and apply it in a way that moves our city forward.
Alex Hall [00:05:55] His biggest issues, I would probably say, really do kind of overlap with Lee, but I think their approaches differ. The budget, obviously, is a big one. Public safety, of course. Another one that he talks about a lot is helping small businesses in Oakland and revitalizing downtown, making City Hall more responsive, bringing employees back into the office. He also talks about holding city workers accountable and just having the work that City Hall does be more transparent.
Loren Taylor [00:06:24] Oakland needs independent leadership that will make the firm decisions that are hard and necessary choices. I’ve been here, I’ve on the ground for more than six years. I look forward to representing Oakland and driving things forward.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:37] And then there’s Barbara Lee, who’s a very well-known name in Oakland, represented the city for many years in Congress. What is she saying on the campaign trail about why she’s running for mayor and what her big issues are?
Alex Hall [00:06:50] Yeah, I think that Barbara Lee is running on a message of unity.
Barbara Lee [00:06:54] For 26 years, I have proudly served Oakland. Of course, four days in Washington, D.C., three days in Oakland. Four days in D. C., three days in Oakland.
Alex Hall [00:07:03] And talking about how at this point in time, Oakland needs someone who can bring people together.
Barbara Lee [00:07:08] And I’ve been so proud to be able to have brought in billions of dollars for housing, for public safety, for infrastructure.
Alex Hall [00:07:17] Taylor, she also focuses a lot on issues like public safety, housing and homelessness is another big one for her, and also accountability and public trust, which I think for all candidates in this race is a big issue, especially after Sheng Thao was indicted in January on bribery and fraud charges.
Barbara Lee [00:07:37] But I also know that Oakland now is at a crossroads, and we need experienced leadership to guide us forward. And I’m running for mayor really because I believe in you, I believe one Oakland.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:07:50] Yeah, it seems like there is quite a bit of overlap in terms of the main issues that these candidates are focused on. How then might you, I guess, differentiate these two on some of these issues?
Alex Hall [00:08:04] I think that when it comes to the budget, both Lee and Taylor have said that they would do an audit of the city’s finances. I think where they differ the most has to do with their relationship to labor. Barbara Lee has the endorsement and financial support of some of the cities major labor unions and she has said that while everything would be on the table, cutting jobs would be a last resort.
Barbara Lee [00:08:31] When it comes to concessions, as I said earlier with regard to the budget, everything is on the table. Cutting jobs would be the last priority because that’s services and jobs. And this city deserves the best services possible.
Alex Hall [00:08:46] Meanwhile, Taylor has taken the approach of saying that basically Oakland’s next mayor needs to really make hard decisions and that he’s prepared to make hard decisions. Even if that means Oakland needs to go through a period where the city isn’t providing all of the jobs it wants to, you know, temporarily so that it can rebound on the other side and grow. And so I think that’s one of the biggest ways that they differ.
Loren Taylor [00:09:12] When it comes to labor, we will have to bring our labor partners to the table to have conversations on how we collectively support this path moving forward.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:26] When it comes to public safety, Lee and Taylor say they wanna hire more police officers, but they differ on the right number and how they would fund it. On homeless encampments, Taylor has said that he wants to close, “unsafe encampments” and get more of them into compliance with the city. Lee has not said whether she plans to clear more encampments, but she did say that clearing them without providing housing solutions has led to more instability and public safety concerns. Both support building more housing.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:06] I mean, what is your sense of how voters are feeling at this point in the election, especially about these two candidates?
Alex Hall [00:10:16] I think it depends, you know, you talk to different voters and some say, you know, they really like that Taylor is really focused on the details.
David Peters [00:10:24] I’m leaning Taylor I supported Taylor the last election, supported the recall again.
Alex Hall [00:10:30] I spoke to one voter, David Peters, at a candidate forum who said that, you know, Oakland’s finances are in such a dire state that, we really need a mayor who can come into office and just hit the ground running.
David Peters [00:10:43] What Taylor is saying is very specific, concrete. We have a massive but structural budget deficit. There’s no, you have to know the answer now.
Alex Hall [00:10:53] Other people, I think, have the viewpoint that, you know, Oakland might need someone who can unify the city and can use their influence to bring people together and get the city the help that it needs right now.
Wilson Riles [00:11:07] We’ve been tripping over ourselves and fighting each other for too long, and it’s part of the reason why we’re in the trouble that we’re in.
Alex Hall [00:11:16] I talked to Wilson Riles and I talked to him about his opinion as a voter, but we should also acknowledge that he is a member of the Oakland Police Commission.
Wilson Riles [00:11:25] I think the candidate who can pull most of us together better than any of the others that are there is Barbara Lee.
Alex Hall [00:11:38] Especially in a special election, you know, it’s probably going to be not super high turnout. Name recognition goes a really long way. And so I think that there will be voters who are just tuning in right at the last second when they need to cast their ballot, looking at this long list of names and going, and, oh, I know Barbara Lee, and, you know, voting accordingly.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:05] And I mean, we have been talking about the top two candidates in the race so far, Alex, but this election is also ranked choice, right? So how could that affect how this all plays out?
Alex Hall [00:12:19] I think it could make it a closer race. It’s really unclear. I mean, like I said, Lee has such this, you know, famous brand and name recognition that, of course, I think will help her a lot in this race. But if neither Lee or Taylor wins more than 50% of the vote, you now, and that’s possible, given that there could be lower turnout in this race. That would definitely insert some more uncertainty because you could have people who are voting for some of the other candidates who then list Lee or Taylor as their second, third, fourth, fifth choice and that could really help either Lee or tailor.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:57] The last day to vote is April 15th. What happens after that? When can we expect a new mayor to take office?
Alex Hall [00:13:05] So the winner of this race is going to serve out the rest of Sheng Thao’s term, which is roughly a year and a half. Voting ends on April 15th. The Registrar of Voters has 30 days to certify the election. And then once they do, the city council at one of their meetings has to recognize the results before the mayor can actually be sworn in. So, you know, it could be more than a month after April 15, before we actually have a new mayor sworn into office.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:13:34] Well, I know the mayor isn’t the only thing on the ballot for Oakland voters. There’s also a city council race and a sales tax measure. It seems like there’s a lot at stake in this election and a lot can change in city hall as a result of what happens here.
