Oakland Councilmember and candidate for Mayor of Oakland Jean Quan held her kickoff event Saturday at "Humanist Hall" one block from Broadway Auto Row (or what's left of it after the economic downturn).
The event was a rousing and surprising success.
Surprising to this blogger because of not just the number of people who came but the range of people from the perspective of well-known Oaklanders, like Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, Assemblywomen Mary Hayashi, and longtime Lakeshore Business representative and politico Pam Drake, a number of people from the Oakland School Board and the education community, and a lot of new Oaklanders.
The idea that Councilmember Jean Quan would lose votes to Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan always seemed silly in this corner, and because Kaplan's relatively new to Oakland, doesn't have the history of working with Oakland's school system, and is young. That was confirmed Saturday.
Quan's event was more like a "Jean-fest" with a Latino rap group opening it, and a group that made a song about Jean after the event wound up. Councilmember-emeritus Dick Spees was present and really showed a level of support that rivaled the young people in the audience when he led a chant for Quan. Spees was having a lot of fun.
There's a part two for this blog entry which will include the video, but it was important to report Jean's success. My only reservation is that Jean simply must develop a thicker skin when it comes to media criticism. The frank fact is many people in the room didn't care what Chip Johnson wrote about Jean or me for that matter, and probably didn't have it on their mind until she mentioned it to them and to me in the video.
The other problem was the few number of African Americans in the room. Swanson and others aside, the ranks were mostly white, Asian, and Latino - it's not enough to say "some blacks were there." What this says is Quan's not reaching the young African Americans who are politically involved in Oakland. That could be a weakness but right now, there's only Mayor Dellums to exploit that, and he's done an awful job of it. Running a stelth campaign for Mayor will not help.
If Jean can improve in those areas, she will be even more successful in the Oakland Mayor's Race. Indeed, she could beat Don Perata. I state that because Quan's got a great foundation of grass roots supporters and enough energy to fuel an election win.
Still, the Oakland Mayor's Race is still weak such that a name person like Van Jones or Robert Bobb could walk in and be the game changer. But the clock's ticking and Councilmember Quan's building support by the day. With that, the real star-in-the-making is Libby Schaaf, who's running for Jean's current seat in District 4. Her event's this Wednesday.
Stay tuned.
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