Oakland Mayor's Race: Rebecca Kaplan interview first take

Last week, Friday morning, Oakland Councilmember (At-Large) and Oakland Mayor's Race candidate Rebecca Kaplan met this video-blogger at an appropriately Oakland location, The Merritt Cafe and Bakery.

There, we were warmly greeted by Merritt Bakery Owner Charles Griffith, and sat down to a brunch of excellent chicken and waffles for Kaplan, and eggs, corned beef and hash for this video-blogger.

Image by spotreporting via Flickr

Rebecca Kaplan at The Oscar Grant Protest

This is not the full blog about the interview, but an introduction. Kaplan and I talked about the issue of earlier this year and got that out of the way off camera.

On camera, we talked about the impact of the Federal Court decision to declare Proposition 8 (or Prop 8) unconstitutional, Kaplan's take on Oakland's police cost problem, how the Oakland Mayor's Race was going for her, and how she would handle a range of issues if she was elected Mayor of Oakland.

Thus far, Oakland Mayor's Race competitors Don Macleay, Don Perata, Councilmember Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Terrance Candell, Joe Tuman (two inteviews; one has appeared) and Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan have been interviewed on video for this space.  That's seven of the nine candidates with just Orlando Johnson and Larry Lionel Young Jr., a new comer, remaining.

But of all Oakland Mayor's Race candidates, only Terrance Candell and Larry Lionel Young Jr. have filed papers officially establishing his intention to run for Mayor of Oakland, according to The Oakland Tribune.  Why Councilmember's Kaplan and Quan failed to file early is a question, as is the case for the other candidates.  It sends a weak message of true interest in being Mayor of Oakland.

And on that note, Larry Lionel Young Jr. needs to get his campaign act together. Young has no search-visible website or blog post and other than newspaper mentions including (now) this space, and a YouTube-posted video of a home he's trying to sell where the video title mentions that he's running for mayor, has only issued a one-sheet a the last Oakland Mayor's Race candidates forum.

Larry Lionel Young Jr. must stop treating the run for Mayor of Oakland as an afterthought, and demonstrate some real interest in it by having some "online marker" about himself and how to contact him via email. Otherwise, the Internet void Young created for himself will be filled by someone else.

Stay tuned.