Oakland City Council Election: Precinct Walking For Libby Schaaf

With just over one week before the election, this blogger went precinct walking for family friend Libby Schaaf, who's running for the Oakland City Council District 4 seat (Oakland Hills - Montclair). I told Libby she should run for Mayor of Oakland long ago, but she's taking the step-ladder approach. If elected, and she really deserves your vote, she's going to make an excellent Oakland councilmember, but we've got to go door-to-door to do it. I've got to admit, it was fun.

What was most enjoyable was meeting the people who make up the area around the Montclair Shopping District. We started with a coffee-table meetup at Montclair Park, led by Oakland Councilmember Jane Brunner, who gave us a good pep talk to get us going. More along the lines of what to say and not to say, than anything else. Meanwhile, a group of joggers went on their circuit, and people were just getting out to run errands. We were on our way.

A Lot Of "Joe Tuman For Mayor" Signs

This is just a fact: there were more "Joe Tuman For Mayor" signs around the area we canvased than for anyone else running for office at any level. Period. To write a blog post without noting that would be dishonest. On that note, Clinton Killian, Libby's challenger, also has some lawn signs visible, thanks to his supporters. It's great to see that Oaklanders are really engaged in this election, and even more so than I expected.

A Team Talk

We - Libby's parents Bob and Barbara Shock, and myself - had a strategy where Barb would take one side of a street, and Bob and I the other. Since Bob's more like your kindly grandfather, I felt it was better for him to do the knocking while I was on hand for background information. That teamwork succeeded in launching into conversations about what the voters wanted in a councilperson.

The best quality for the new councilmember is to be effective: to be able to take action to fix the streets and roads of the neighborhood. That calls for a feel for Oakland's City Hall and a knowledge of who to contact to handle a problem. The second quality is to be able to listen, and carefully, and for a long time. I can comfortably say Libby has both qualities and our job was to share that view with the people we talked to.

The Sprinkler

The Saturday walk was not without its interesting developments and mishaps.  There was the large live turkey in a person's backyard and visible from the road.  That thing must have been three feet tall!  Seriously.   That was one big turkey.

Then there was the sprinkler.  Someone had their sprinkler set such that when you walked up their walkway to ring their bell, the water sprinkler, pointed at the path, would shoot a spray of water at you.  That happened to me, and thank God I'm fast enough to dodge the stream or I'd have gotten pretty wet.  Check out the video!

Folks, if you are not home, turn off the auto-sprinkler, or if you don't want to be visited by precinct walkers, put up a sign. It will be honored. But the sprinkler in my face? Not cool, but one of the hazards of doing a good deed of that kind.

Stay tuned.