Alameda City Council Race: a first look
I was hoping to write something up about the upcoming city council/mayoral race before my vacation, but it didn't happen. So a bit late, here is my initial take on things.
According to this report, we have the following candidates for Mayor:
For City Council:
One thing that is interesting is that Doug deHaan, Pat Bail, and Eugenie Thomson have banded together as a slate. What an odd trio! Pat Bail, you may recall, unsuccessfully spent almost $100K of her own money (hugely outspending her opponents) in the last CC race, and thankfully failed. So now she's at it again, and I'm guessing that she is enticing the other candidates to share in her riches if they join her team. Although deHaan has been a bit too conservative for me, he's at least a Democrat, so what is he doing with this right-winger? And what I've heard about Thompson has been quite positive in the past, so again, why is she teaming up with Bail? I'd be inclined to give Thomson my vote in spite of this, but I certainly wouldn't give her slate a nickel of support.
On the Mayoral race, then, I'd like to know more about Kenneth Kahn. Will his campaign get started soon, or is this just a no-budget, what-the-heck candidate? I'm not particularly a fan of Johnson's development-no-matter-what approach, but she would probably be preferable to deHaan.
The Council lineup is of course bigger. It looks like Lena Tam of the Hospital board is already actively campaigning, and she seems to have a lot of support from mainstream democrats. Her race is one to watch. My neighbor Michael Rich is running as well; he works for the Air Quality district if I recall, so he is certainly going to have an environmental background. I haven't talked with him too much about the issues, though, so I'm not ready for any kind of endorsement at this time. Incumbent Frank Mataresse is running again, and he certainly has my support; he's been consistenly on-board with progressive issues. I'm hoping that the controversy regarding his son won't bring down his candidacy; certainly Don Roberts is taking every chance he gets.
I don't know much more about the candidates, but I'm hoping to learn more. This posting from Lauren Do, whose blog I just discovered, has a bit of analysis of a recent Don Roberts show that might be interesting.
According to this report, we have the following candidates for Mayor:
- Doug deHaan
- Beverly Johnson, incumbent
- Kenneth Kahn
For City Council:
- Pat Bail
- Ashley Jones
- Frank Matarrese
- Michael Rich
- Eugenie Thomson
- Lena Tam
One thing that is interesting is that Doug deHaan, Pat Bail, and Eugenie Thomson have banded together as a slate. What an odd trio! Pat Bail, you may recall, unsuccessfully spent almost $100K of her own money (hugely outspending her opponents) in the last CC race, and thankfully failed. So now she's at it again, and I'm guessing that she is enticing the other candidates to share in her riches if they join her team. Although deHaan has been a bit too conservative for me, he's at least a Democrat, so what is he doing with this right-winger? And what I've heard about Thompson has been quite positive in the past, so again, why is she teaming up with Bail? I'd be inclined to give Thomson my vote in spite of this, but I certainly wouldn't give her slate a nickel of support.
On the Mayoral race, then, I'd like to know more about Kenneth Kahn. Will his campaign get started soon, or is this just a no-budget, what-the-heck candidate? I'm not particularly a fan of Johnson's development-no-matter-what approach, but she would probably be preferable to deHaan.
The Council lineup is of course bigger. It looks like Lena Tam of the Hospital board is already actively campaigning, and she seems to have a lot of support from mainstream democrats. Her race is one to watch. My neighbor Michael Rich is running as well; he works for the Air Quality district if I recall, so he is certainly going to have an environmental background. I haven't talked with him too much about the issues, though, so I'm not ready for any kind of endorsement at this time. Incumbent Frank Mataresse is running again, and he certainly has my support; he's been consistenly on-board with progressive issues. I'm hoping that the controversy regarding his son won't bring down his candidacy; certainly Don Roberts is taking every chance he gets.
I don't know much more about the candidates, but I'm hoping to learn more. This posting from Lauren Do, whose blog I just discovered, has a bit of analysis of a recent Don Roberts show that might be interesting.
posted by A Progressive Alamedan | 12:25 PM
2 Comments:
I did an interview with Mr. Kahn. Nice guy.
theneedsofthefew.blogspot.com
We're designing his campaign website for gratis.
You can catch a video of Pat Bail deriding low-cost housing on YouTube
In the video, she said she doesn't want any low-income housing built in Alameda, because she doesn't want to build a barbed wire fence in her backyard.
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