BART Director, District 4: Robert Raburn
This race is very important to me. I've known both candidates professionally for 10+ years. Robert is a bulldog, and fortunately one with whom I agree on most transportation issues. He understands that BART needs to focus on strengthening its core system, the system that carries 300,000-plus people each weekday. He understands that means fiscal accountability, safe and clean stations and trains. He has a history in the Latino community, having worked to protect Latino voters' rights before his last decade-plus of transportation advocacy (he ran the East Bay Bicycle Coalition).
His opponent, by contrast, is an incumbent (Carole Ward Allen) who hasn't had a challenger for the past 12 years. She is the champion of the half-billion airport connector ski-lift proposal (don't get me started -- it defines boondoggle). To do so, she tried to defend BART as the Obama administration cited it for violating civil rights law. Essentially, she claimed BART couldn't be violating civil rights law because she's black (her direct quote was "I am Title VI").
If you really want more info, check out a terrific annotated recap of the LWV candidates' forum from A Better Oakland. Or if you want to watch it straight through, just watch the whole thing at SF Gate's InAlameda blog.
Robert has a big uphill battle, challenging an incumbent -- I'm sending him donations. I hope you'll send him your vote.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment