In the Oakland Mayors Race, no one person brings out more passions than Former State Senator Don Perata. Everyone has some kind of opinion about Perata. Everytime the subject of the Oakland Mayor's Race comes up, someone says to this blogger "Perata's going to win," as if they're watching a horse race, rather than participating in an election.
But for those who have seen Oakland's mayoral future, and it's Perata, there seem to be many more who are set to attack him or just proclaim their hatred for him. It's a level of dislike that has led to the creation of one website and two Twitter accounts, all against him.
For example, there's the website Anybody But Perata, which reads as follows:
The purpose of this website is very simple: to present reasons why former State Senator Don Perata should not be elected mayor of the City of Oakland, California.
While the election of Don Perata as Oakland mayor would probably be very good for Mr. Perata and his friends and family and a few of his associates, we believe that it would be very bad for most of the residents of the City of Oakland.
The website is a collection, mostly, of articles from The East Bay Express, where Robert Gammon has paid his bills writing about Perata, and largely in the negative. As befits it's title, you're not going to find fair and balanced coverage of Perata.
Even more negative are the twin Twitter pages The REAL Don Perata and Fake Don Perata. Their tweets were the stuff of another World during the Kaiser Center Forum of two weeks ago. Here's a sample of their tweets, some of them to me as I was tweeting about the forum:
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum @fakedonperata You may have won this one but I WILL HAVE ReVENgE!!!!!!!!!!!!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@zennie62 #oaklandforum @fakedonperata STFU!!! You fat bald bastard! I am the only Fake Real Don! There can only be ONE!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum WTF! @fakedonperata is stealing my style! Dawg! You should know nots ta mess with da REAL!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum @zennie62 MY budget experience includes going over the campaign spending limit with 2 months left in the race.
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@JeanQuan you call that a video? I just hired Spike Jonez! Sending limit, shmending shmimmit!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@fakejeanquan Damn right we've got your precious microfilm! And if you want it back it will cost you dearly. Muhahahahahaha!
20 Sep
East Bay Express Helps Perata
Why does Don Perata have so much Internet exposure relative to his Oakland Mayor's Race competitors? The East Bay Express. Proving once again that Old Media people just don't get New Media, Robert Gammon has generated or caused the generation of 17,000 items of content regarding Don Perata. In shaping Perata's current image, that of a behind-the-scenes power broker who helps his friends at the expense of the public, Gammon has single-handedly formed the foundation for Senator Perata's neme recognition.
The good news for Perata is he didn't have to spend a dime. Because Gammon's view is so unbalanced, it causes some to think about Perata and consider that the Express could be wrong. Robert's material has also made Perata look like an operative who can get things done.
So, contrary to my initial take, Robert Gammon has been Don Perata's best friend. Gammon's almost psychotic-level of attention to Perata hs caused him to ignore the other candidates beyond those in the Oakland City Council, and even then they're not mentioned so much.
Robert Gammon has caused or catalyzed or been associated with more generated online content about Perata than even current Mayor Ron Dellums: 13,000 for Dellums versus 15,300 results for Perata. (And 11,000 for Kaplan and for Quan each, 2,770 for Terrance Candell, 2,570 for Joe Tuman, 2,260 results for Don Macleay, 1,550 for Greg Harland, 673 results for Marcie Hodge, 89 for Larry Lionel Young, and 72 results for Arnie Fields.)
If Perata should win the Oakland Mayor's Race, his first course of action should be to thank Robert Gammon.
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