Please see the note below about a very important contest that could bring Oakland into alignment with San Jose and San Francisco where two pragmatic mayors (Matt Mahan and Daniel Lurie) have been elected. Please help add Loren Taylor to that mix. Also, to save your inboxes from too many GFC emails, I have started publishing more technical items in a Substack column entitled On California.
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We’ve been encouraged by recent momentum in Oakland toward more effective, pragmatic governance: In the November election, for instance, voters overwhelmingly recalled an ineffective (and now criminally indicted) mayor.
But when the race to succeed recalled mayor Sheng Thao kicked off (with a special election to take place on April 15), Govern for California initially hesitated to get deeply involved — not because we didn’t believe in our preferred candidate, Loren Taylor, but rather because early polling pointed to the potentially overwhelming strength of his opponent — former US representative Barbara Lee.
We were wrong. Multiple polls now show a neck-and-neck race (or Taylor ahead), and this weekend, Taylor picked up the SF Chronicle endorsement (adding to another recent endorsement from GFC favorite San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan).
A number of Govern For California chapters have contributed to Loren’s campaign, and with the election just over a week away, we encourage you to consider doing the same:
Please donate here (and given the timeline, if you’re able to contribute, we encourage you to do so in the next day or two).
Thank you,
Alistair Thornton and Eli Bildner, co-chairs,
Govern For California East Bay
Govern For California Excellence in Education
