'Sheng is going to call you re: $$'

Sheng Thao thought she was going to lose the 2022 mayoral election to Loren Taylor. Something needed to be done. According to the FBI, the winning strategy involved bribery

FBI PROBE

—CHAPTER 1—With less than a month before Election Day, Sheng Thao’s 2022 campaign for Oakland mayor was showing signs of imminent defeat. Internal polling showed Thao trailing then-Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor.

Labor, which had bet heavily on Thao’s mayoral campaign, was also seeing poor polling numbers.

To make matters worse, Thao’s campaign was facing strong headwinds from all directions.

Wealthy donors interested in bringing coal shipments through the Port of Oakland had just pumped another $250,000 into an independent expenditure committee in support of another opponent, former Oakland Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente.

During this time, a former staffer for then-Councilmember Thao said she was fired for refusing to work on the mayoral campaign.

Seneca Scott, a candidate in the 2022 mayoral race, was unceasing in his attacks on Thao. Scott, who would later lead the successful effort to recall Thao from office last November, was living in the campaign’s collective head.

At one point, Thao’s campaign contemplated filing a temporary restraining order against Scott, a candidate who would go on to win just three percent of the vote.

Thao was going to lose the election to Taylor.

Something had to be done…

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