By CHRISTINA SALERNO and MARTIN RICARD
Nov. 5 – AC Transit board member Rebecca Kaplan won the race tonight for the at-large seat on the Oakland City Council, with 61 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Oakland school board member Kerry Hamill, trailed with 38 percent.
The two were vying for the at-large council seat occupied by Henry Chang Jr., who, after 14 years, will vacate the position. Both Kaplan and Hamill hail from neighborhoods in North Oakland.
Kaplan, a 38-year-old civil rights attorney who lives in Temescal with her partner, campaigned on a platform of business revitalization and a call for problem-solving officers in all of the city’s 63 police beats. She will be the city’s first openly gay council member.
Hamill,52, has lived in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood in North Oakland for 20 years. She has served as an Oakland school board member for the past eight years.
She campaigned on a back-to-basics platform that included keeping parks clean, filling potholes, developing walkable communities and strengthening the community policing beats.
Rebecca will be the city’s second openly-gay councilmember.
Rebecca Kaplan, a bisexual woman who serves on the AC Transit board…
–Bay Area Reporter, 02/28/2008
Thanks for the response, dto510. I know this is a little late, but do you happen to know who was the first openly-gay councilmember? We apologize for the mistake. And we’re going to have to check on the “bisexual” claim.
Danny Wan, the former District 2 Councilmember, is openly gay.