As this blogger has written, The (yeah, capital "T") Oakland Mayor's Race is going to get even more interesting and today, Thursday, is proof. Pay attention to this blog post if you enjoy laughter and guffaws, and you know you do.
First, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan phoned to say she called Kent Lewandowski, volunteer Chairperson for the Northern Alameda County Group of the Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Chapter, and the author of what's still the most awful email in Oakland Politics ever seen by this blogger, to ask him to include all of the candidates.
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| I must admit, this is funny |
That meant the only participants in the "Oakland Green Mayoral Forum" would be Former State Senator Don Perata, and Oakland Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan.
But that didn't last long because Perata's Campaign Manager emailed to inform this blogger that Senator Perata would not be involved in any Forum that did not include every candidate running for Mayor (presumably, including Arnie Fields).
By that, we can say Perata means all forums that exclude candidates for booyah-boogie reasons, which includes the Oakland Chamber of Commerce event with the League of Women Voters.
So with the Sierra Club "Oakland Green Mayoral Forum" down to just two candidates, Kaplan and Quan, Councilmember Kaplan called Kent Lewandowski to ask the Sierra Club to open the Forum to all candidates. According to Councilmember Kaplan, Kent said he had to take the issue to "some people" but would "consider" doing that.
My response to Rebecca was that she should just drop out of the Forum, if only to teach the Sierra Club a lesson. But after further consideration, I think Councilmember Kaplan should be insulted that the Sierra Club would not just go-ahead and open the Wednesday Forum because she made the call. Why give the Sierra Club such power? I don't get it.
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| Rebecca Kaplan |
And on the matter of giving power to Oakland groups who don't deserve it in the Oakland Mayor's Race, we have the League of Women Voters (LVW) essentially getting its Forum-production marching orders from The Oakland Chamber of Commerce and The Bay Area Business Roundtable, but wanting to back away from them.
Pay attention.
Oakland Chamber bullies LWV
According to sources that will not be named, it was the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and The Bay Area Business Roundtable that approached the League of Women Voters with a desire to form what is a totally laugh-producing, belly-hurting set of criteria for their Oakland Mayor's Race Forum on September 23rd at Kaiser Center, 7 PM.
The basic criteria for the Oakland Chamber / League of Women Voters Forum are reasonable. First one has to be on the ballot. Second, they have to have what the Oakland Chamber / League of Women Voters defines to be a "viable campaign:"
1. Made a public announcement of an intention to run
2. Legally registered campaign committee with the California Secretary of State
3. Have filed appropriate financial reports with the City of Oakland and the California FPPC
4. Publicly accessible campaign headquarters
5. Telephone number, other than a personal or home number, listed under the campaign’s name
6. Campaign website and/or other campaign material with articulated views on issues
7. Campaign bank account and campaign treasurer
Ok, all of that is fine. But what's really hilarious comes next:
In addition, the candidate must meet at least one of the following criteria:
1. The candidate has received 5 percent or more of the vote, tested in a trial heat in a professionally conducted independent public opinion survey conducted by an experienced political pollster based on a scientific sample of the entire electorate with a margin of error of less than 5 percent (at a 95 percent level of confidence), if such a public opinion survey is available.
2. The candidate has reported in legal documents filed with state or city government entities the receipt, during the election campaign, of at least one campaign contribution per 1,000 residents of the constituency (based on the total number of persons enumerated in the last U.S. census), excluding contributions from the candidate himself or herself, the candidate’s spouse, or the candidate’s natural or adopted children. Contributions do not have to be residents of the constituency to be counted.
3. The candidate previously had been elected to or held, the office that he or she is seeking.
4. The candidate sought the same office during the previous eight years and received at least 20 percent of the vote in the general election.
Now, if you think about it and know Oakland Politics, the above criteria leaves the Oakland Chamber / League of Women Voters Forum with just one candidate: Arnie Fields.
First, there's no public survey done to fit #1, so that's out. And that's really a stupid idea because it doesn't say that every candidate has to be in the poll, thus, the poll could be rigged to help certain candidates.
Second, for the second criteria to be met, the candidate would need 401 donations. While there's an effort to help presumably all of the candidates get to that number, it's not widespread or perfect, and because of that it will fall short. Maybe two or three candidates fall into this area, but that's it.
Third, not one of the candidates falls into criteria number three.
Fourth, the only person who falls into criteria number four is Arnie Fields, who ran in 2006. Seriously.
Here's Arnie stating his support to keep the A's in Oakland in 2006 during an Oakland Mayoral Forum called "Choose or Loose The A's:"
It's Arnie Fields and Who Else?
So, the only one of the candidates out right should be at the Oakland Chamber / League of Women Voters September 23rd Forum is Arnie Fields.
In other words, it's a coin flip that the other candidates meet the donation criteria, so it's Arnie Field's show. Especially since Senator Don Perata's not going to be there.
So you could have Fields, Kaplan, and Quan at the September 23rd Forum. But how did this happen?
The Oakland Chamber and BANG vs The League of Women Voters
According to sources, members of the Bay Area Business Roundtable, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and the Bay Area News Group (which calls itself "BANG" and publishes The Oakland Tribune) approached the League of Women Voters with the idea of doing the September 23rd Forum, but with some form of criteria.
The LWV objected to the idea of having criteria to exclude certain candidates because it would "lead to protests," but the Oakland Chamber persisted.
Now, what we have is a place where the League is refusing to rubber-stamp a system it did not want to start with, but is in place. In other words, the LWV was bullied by the Oakland Business Community, and the publishers of The Oakland Tribune. (Which is shameful for BANG, which appears to be involved in trying to BANG, if not rig, the Oakland election process.)
Sad and for almost everyone involved...except Arnie Fields.
The League of Women Voters Partners with BABJA
Preferring to discount that error of a Forum, the League of Women Voters points to its new partnership with Bay Area Black Journalists Association, or BABJA, for a "different kind" of forum to be held on October 21st at Holly Names in Oakland, and presented by a "strong moderator."
Meanwhile, the candidates are "inundated" as one put it, with forum invitations. There's the John George Democratic Club Endorsement Forum at 920 Peralta Street from 10 AM to 2 PM this Saturday. The Sierrs Club Green Forum is to be held Wednesday, August 25th, but let's see about that one.
And we have the "Black Women Organized for Political Action Forum on Jobs" set for September 2nd at 6:30 PM at Beebe Memorial Cathedral, 3900 Telegraph Ave. After that, there's the "Arnie Field Memorial Forum" by the League of Women Voters of Oakland, Bay Area Business Roundtable, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and BANG on September 23rd.
Then, the one forum the LWV wants you to think about when you think of them, its forum with BABJA at Holy Names, comes up on October 21st.
It's really sad that some Oaklanders feel they have to try and "control" the political process. As I told Councilmember Kaplan, there's a small group of people in this town who think they have more control than they really do. It's funny to watch them in action, and gratifying to see their plans fail. No candidate running for Mayor of Oakland should be excluded for any reason outside of the law.
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