Wilma Chan's legacy headlines surprisingly lackluster Alameda County supervisors race
EAST BAY JUNE PRIMARY PREVIEW
PROLOGUE
Sometime around Halloween last year, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan was planning her re-election campaign. Her chief of staff Dave Brown was making phone calls promoting a birthday-themed fundraiser before tragedy broke. Chan was hit by a motorist in Alameda and later died ending the life of one of the county’s legendary elected officials. Highland Hospital in Oakland is now named after Chan, as is a street in Alameda. Now four candidates hoping to take over the Alameda County Board of Supervisors seat in District 3 are campaigning to extend Chan’s legacy.
MEET THE CANDIDATES
REBECCA KAPLAN
Kaplan has served on the Oakland City Council since 2008. Her rise was steep. She ran for mayor two years later and through ranked-choice voting helped lead Jean Quan to victory. For the first eight years in public office, Kaplan waged a campaign every two years. She ran a strong second campaign for mayor in 2014, but ran out of gas late and lost to Libby Schaaf. Kaplan turned away a well-financed challenge to her at-large council seat in 2020. Known as a policy wonk and someone with a reputation for finding common ground, her expertise is in transportation issues. Over the years, she created a strong bond with labor unions and the cannabis industry. She has campaigned on taking over the Alameda Health System and bring just cause renters protections to unincorporated Alameda County.
LENA TAM
Tam served on the Alameda City Council for eight years, from 2008 through 2014. Like Kaplan, Tam was labor-friendly, in particular, with the powerful Alameda firefighters union. During her time on the council, she helped strengthen the city’s sunshine laws. Alameda has a 12-day agenda noticing period that is still stronger than most neighboring cities. Her bonds with labor may not be as strong as they once were because she’s been out of the public life for the last eight years. In 2016, she made an unsuccessful run for the BART Board of Directors. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Tam is favored by landlord interests.
DAVID KAKISHIBA
Kakishiba’s lengthy career in public service is built strongly on the youth and education. He served as an Oakland school boardmember for 12 years through 2014 before resigning, in part, because of his extensive connections with youth groups in the city forced him to often recuse himself from votes. For over four decades, Kakishiba has served as executive director of the East Bay Asian Youth Center.
SURLENE GRANT
In 1998, Grant became the first African American woman to serve on the San Leandro City Council. Last year, the city honored his history-making time in office by renaming a community room adjacent to the City Council chambers in her honor. During her tenure, she helped lead the city to enact an inclusionary housing ordinance and worked toward healing the city’s past troubles with racial discrimination by co-founding the group Unity in the Community.
PLOTLINES
In hindsight, this race has been nowhere near compelling as initially thought simply because the normal campaign cycle was significantly truncated by Chan’s untimely death. Being the next District 3 supervisor representing Alameda, San Leandro, Oakland Chinatown and Fruitvale, and San Lorenzo was on nobody’s mind. Chan would have likely run unopposed in June. What has transpired is a group of four candidates with lackluster fundraising numbers and platforms lacking specificity. It’s not a knock against each candidate, just the reality of these unique circumstances. Shortly after Chan’s death in November the talking point was that District 3 is the Asian seat on the Board due to its large demographic. Then it was the Asian woman’s seat. What ulitmatley occurred is state Attorney General Rob Bonta stepped in and helped usher in Chan’s chief of staff Dave Brown into office as a caretaker. The gambit may blow up in everybody’s face if Kaplan eventually wins the seat. In one way, this race is Turn Back the Clock Night at the polls. Kaplan has served on the Oakland City Council since 2008, but the three other candidates have been out of elected for more than a combined three decades. Grant last served in 2008, Kakishiba in 2012, and Tam in 2014. The four candidates are all pretty much progressives like Chan, so there’s little risk for changing the dynamics of the Board of Supervisors. But the unincorporated areas are a very important part of this district. One important pivot in this race is just cause protections for renters in unincorporated Alameda County. Kaplan is very supportive of enacting just cause, while Tam is less enthused about it. Kakishiba and Grant have somewhat ambiguous views on the subject.
PAST RESULTS
2018 JUNE PRIMARY
Wilma Chan 44,825 votes (97.35%)
Write-in 1,218 votes (2.65%)
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
LENA TAM—Jan. 1-April 23
Cash on Hand $89,060
Cash IN $136,853
Cash OUT $47,792
Loans/Debts $0
Donor Type: Self-financed/individuals/real estate. Notable Donors: Lena Tam $105,000; Stewart Chen $1,000; Newport Apartments $500; 1388 Bancroft Apartments $250; Tom Silva $250; Paul Rolleri $250; Alice Lai-Bitker $200.
Top Endorsers: Controller Betty Yee, Supervisor Dave Brown, Corina Lopez, Phong La.
REBECCA KAPLAN—Jan. 1-April 23
Cash on Hand $71,176
Cash IN $116,943
Cash OUT $45,766
Loans/Debts $0
Donor Type: Labor unions. Notable Donors: Rebecca Kaplan $10,936; UA Local 342 $5,000; IFTPE Local 21 $5,000; IBEW Local 595 $5,000; IAAF Local 55 $5,000; Sheet Metal Workers Local 304 $5,000; AB&I Foundry $2,500; Greg McConnell $1,500.
Top Endorsers: Alameda County Democratic Party, Alameda Labor Council, Fire Fighters IAFF Local 55, SEIU Local 1021.
Independent Expenditure Committees: OPPOSE - California Apartment Association PAC.
DAVID KAKISHIBA—Jan. 1-April 23
Cash on Hand $54,100
Cash IN $106,361
Cash OUT $58,894
Loans/Debts $6,543
Donor Type: Education/self-financed/individuals. Notable Donors: David Kakishiba $5,000; Shanthi Gonzalez $5,000; Aimee Eng $2,750; Gary Yee $2,500; Pat Kernighan $500; Nikki Fortunato Bas $500; Sheila Jordan $100.
Top Endorsers: Nikki Fortunato Bas, Trish Spencer, Bryan Azevedo, Gary Yee, Megan Sweet.
SURLENE GRANT—Jan. 1-April 23
Cash on Hand $47,136
Cash IN $47,766
Cash OUT $27,052
Loans/Debts $26,422
Donor Type: Self-financed/individuals. Notable Donors: Surlene Grant $20,000 (Loan); John Gooding $1,000; Jerry Garcia $1,000; Evelyn Gonzalez $500; Juan Gonzalez $500; Bernard Ashcraft $500.
Top Endorsers: Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), Pauline Russo Cutter, Aisha Knowles,
PRIMARY OUTLOOK
What’s notable here is that there is a lack of consensus among insiders about how this race will shake down. If you ask someone in San Leandro, they will predict Grant. Alamedans will promote Tam’s chances. Oakland people say don’t overlook Kakishiba. And those in each part of the district can’t seem to gauge Kaplan’s strength in a district where Oakland is not a major chunk of the action. There’s candidates from each part of the district, except one. Could little ol’ San Lorenzo be the kingmaker? If so, this might not be a good sign for Kaplan, easily the most progressive candidate in the race and San Lorenzo is mostly known for its single-family tract homes, not a haven for renters. Despite these questions, Kaplan has the most money and the ability to draw more in the future. She is also the most well-known within a field of unknowns. A November runoff is likely and any combination without Kaplan in the top two is unlikely. If it’s Kaplan vs. Tam in November, expect an expensive race with progressives and labor unions backing Kaplan and real estate interests in unincorporated Alameda County spending big to maintain minimal tenant protection within their domain.
PREDICTION
November runoff. 1. Kaplan 2. Tam.
ELECTION 2022
—CALL FOR RESIGNATION—Ray Bobbitt, part of the African American-led group trying to bring a WNBA franchise to Oakland and brother of the Fremont police officer who died last February, demanded on Tuesday night that Fremont Mayor Lily Mei resign and quit her campaign for the state Senate. Fremont police Capt. Freddie Bobbitt’s family says the disgraced former City Manager Mark Danaj ruined their brother’s career, along with Mei. You might recall the Fremont City Council let Danaj go last fall and handed him a $300,000 severance. It was later reported that Danaj allegedly stole $18,000 from the city’s coffers. During a vociferous call for Mei to resign at Tuesday night’s Fremont council meeting, Bobbitt hinted that Mei’s “personal relationships” factored into any wrongdoing she is alleged to have done.
—CHU’S RESPONSE TO MAILER—Assemblymember Alex Lee went on a full offensive against his predecessor’s campaign to win back the 24th District seat this week. Candidate and former assemblymember Kansen Chu took exception to Lee’s assertion that he quit on the district. Chu held the seat since 2014 and did not seek re-election in 2020 in order to run for the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, which he did win. “I would like to set the record straight,” Chu said. “I will never quit on you. In 2020, I had to step down from the position because I needed to work from home in San Jose to be closer to my mother during her final days.” He added, “I never quit on my mother, and I never quit on you.”
—LANDLORDS’ OFFENSIVE—In the same 24th Assembly District race, Alex Lee noted on Twitter that landlords and developers are plunking down big money in the past week to take down his pro-renter campaign.
—LANDLORDS FOR KUMAGAI—A late-emerging IE named the Fighting for Our Future Committee is also attempting to sway voters away from pro-renter candidates in the 20th Assembly District race. The mailer, like others by the campaign and other IEs highlights candidate Shawn Kumagai’s experience in the Navy and calls him “a voice of reason.”
—CHARTER SCHOOL IE—The IE backed by A’s owner John Fisher, a longtime advocate for charter schools, delivered this mailer to Tri-Valley voters in the Alameda County Board of Education race in Area 7. The race could tip the balance of the board toward charter school supporters. The IE is supporting Kate Dao’s campaign. She founded a Livermore private school. The Fisher-backed IE is basically the entirety of Dao’s campaign.