Mayoral Race
Courtney Ruby, 47, is no stranger to politics. Now in her eighth year as Oakland’s elected city auditor, she’s entered a large crowd of candidates seeking to unseat incumbent Mayor Jean Quan. “I have proven leadership experience,” she said. “I’ve been under the hood of almost every department, I know what’s broken, and I have the skills to fix it. I have turned a troubled agency into performing model audit organization.” She is running on the promise of keeping public…
Libby Schaaf, a District 4 councilmember who announced her run for mayor last year, is hoping her policies on transparent government, safety, education and Oakland’s economy will win her City Hall’s top office in November. Schaaf, 48, has been involved in Oakland’s local government since 1999, when she worked as chief of staff for then-council president Ignacio de la Fuente. The former lawyer later served as top aide to Mayor Jerry Brown, and then as an executive for the Port…
Undaunted by critics of her leadership, incumbent Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, the first Asian American woman elected to lead a major U.S. metropolis, is fighting to keep her job at City Hall. Her platform stresses a lifetime of service, from her days as a councilmember working to keep libraries open, to her Peace in the Parks program aiming to unite families in East and West Oakland. Raised by a single immigrant mother, Quan was an activist in the Third World Liberation Front Strike and…
When he turned 23, Army veteran Peter Y. Liu came home from Iraq and found that there wasn’t a job waiting for him in his military specialty, journalism. The largest metropolitan newspapers on the West Coast were in the midst of downsizing. Now at 33, after a decade of working in the nonprofit, insurance and real estate sectors, Liu has declared his candidacy for Oakland mayor. He is running a frugal campaign, limited to $1,000 of his own funds, highlighting…
Tax specialist Nancy Sidebotham, 69, said she’s run for the Oakland City Council six times. She’s never won a seat. But, to her mind, she’s never lost either. “There’s not too many candidates that lose, and stay involved,” said Sidebotham, who’s lived in Oakland for more than 50 years, and served on the Community Policing Advisory Board, Neighborhood Watch and Shop Oakland boards, among other organizations. “I continue to stay involved and continue to work for my community.” The East Oakland…
Attorney and Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel has some big plans for the city. And he wants your vote. “I have the ideas, experience, and ability to be a great mayor of the city of Oakland,” Siegel said. He faces a tough field that so far includes 14 other competitors for the city’s top job. The longtime civil rights lawyer and independent candidate has a detailed proposal to combat what he feels is the biggest issue facing Oakland: the threat…
Bryan Parker embraces being an outsider. Although Jean Quan appointed him to the Port Commission in 2012, most know him as a former healthcare and tech executive. He sees his lack of political experience as an advantage in his run to become Oakland’s next mayor. Parker pointed to his record of business leadership, saying that as vice president, general manager of real estate and internal growth at healthcare company DaVita Inc., he grew his division’s budget from $400 million to $800…
On a rainy Wednesday, Oakland City Councilmember Libby Schaaf rushed into Laurel Elementary School, staving off any signs of exhaustion from the previous night’s late council meeting. There, potential student council members waited to hear her advice regarding their campaigns.
Oakland’s Twitter community is hoping to create a new kind of mayoral debate in the coming election season—the kind that fits in 140 characters or less.