Federal, State, Alameda County, & District Elected Officials - Nov. 2024

Here are my recommendations on the elected officials I vote on above the city level -- Alameda County, Special Districts, and State + Federal elected officials. Plus this is where I link to others who cover wider parts of the East Bay than I do. First the TLDR summary ...

Federal & State Elected Officials:

President/Vice-President: Kamala Harris & Tim Walz

US Senator (both races): Adam Schiff

US Congress, 12th District: Lateefah Simon

CA Senate, 7th District: Jesse Arreguin

CA Assembly, 14th District: Buffy Wicks

Alameda County Elected Officials:

Supervisor, 5th District: John Bauters

NO NO NO on the Recall of Pamela Price, Alameda County District Attorney

Special Districts:

*BART District 3: Barnali Ghosh

BART District 7: Victor Flores

*AC Transit, Ward 1: Christian Peeples

*AC Transit, Ward 2: Jean Walsh 

*Note: uncontested races, so they won't show up on your ballot, but you should know who's representing you!

Plus (for all of you who ask me about Oakland and other East Bay races), see below for recommendations from knowledgeable and like-minded friends. 

See other posts for Berkeley ballot measures, Berkeley elected officials, and the state propositions (coming soon!).

For details, read on!

Nov 2020: Alameda County Measures, Judges, + Elected Officials (Federal-State-Special Districts)

Here are my recommendations on Alameda County’s measures plus elected officials from the federal down to county/district level.

Alameda County 

Measure V: Yes for Utility Users Tax Unincorporated areas

Measure W: YES YES YES for Housing and Services for People Suffering from Homelessness

Federal + State offices
President: Biden-Harris
U.S. Representative, 13th Congressional District: Barbara Lee
CA State Senator, 9th Senate District: Nancy Skinner
CA State Assembly, 15th Assembly District: Buffy Wicks
CA State Assembly, 18th Assembly District: Rob Bonta

Special Districts:

AC Transit At-Large: Chris Peeples

AC Transit Ward 1: Wallace

AC Transit Ward 2: Jean Walsh

BART District 1: Jamie Salcido

BART District 3: Rebecca Saltzman

BART District 7: Lateefah Simon

East Bay Regional Parks Ward 1: Elizabeth Echols

Plus (for all of you who ask me about Oakland every year), see below for a friend's recommendations. 

For details, read on ...

Oakland: Yes on the Measures; Schaaf (#1) & Quan (#2) for Mayor, Guillen-Dist 4, Roberts-Auditor

I don't get to vote in Oakland, but I wish I did. There's a lot of important issues in play here. Since I don't get to vote, I haven't done quite as much research as one the races I do vote in. With those caveats, here's one big post with all my thoughts on Oakland races:

November 2012 Summary of Recommendations

Here's my summary of recommendations for the November 2012 election. I've tried my best to put these in the order they'll appear on your ballot, based on how they show up in mine. If there's a race missing that you want more info on, post a comment!!

Federal & State

• President, Senator, Congress, State Senate & Assembly: I'm voting the Democratic ticket. I like some of them (Obama, Lee, Hancock, Skinner) more than others (Feinstein).They're all going to win California or their respective districts, so I won't spend any time here debating their relative merits.

Nonpartisan Offices

• Berkeley Rent Board (up to 4): not satisfied, but probably voting the 'progressive slate', Dodsworth, Shelton, Soto-Vigil, and Tregub.
• Berkeley School Board (up to 2): Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, Judy Appel
• AC Transit Director, At Large: Chris Peeples
• AC Transit Director, Ward 1: Yelda Bartlett
• BART Director, District 3: Rebecca Saltzman
• BART Director, District 7: Maria Alegria

State Propositions
Most important to me are Yes on 30 (fix the budget!), No on 32 (don't silence our voices), and Yes on 34 (replace the death penalty with justice that works!). Here's the full summary:

• Yes on 30: Temporary State Budget Fix
• No on 31:  Poorly Worked-Out Budget Reform
• No on 32: Don't Silence Our Voices
• No on 33: Billionaire #1: Manipulating the Insurance Market
• Yes on 34: Justice That Works
• No on 35: Human Trafficking Penalties
• Yes on 36: Reform Three Strikes Law
• Yes on 37: Support our Right to Know What We Eat
• No on 38: Billionaire #2 with inadequate education funding
• Yes on 39: Close Out-of-State Corporate Tax Loophole
• Yes on 40: Approve Redistricting by Citizens Commission

Alameda County Measures:

• Yes on A1: Zoo Improvements
• YES!! on B1: Crucial Transit Improvements

City Nonpartisan Offices:

• Berkeley Mayor: Tom Bates
• Berkeley City Council District 2 (Southwest): Darryl Moore (1st), Denisha DeLane (2nd)
• Berkeley City Council District 3 (South Berkeley): Max Anderson
• Berkeley City Council District 5 (Thousand Oaks): Laurie Capitelli
• Oakland City Council, At-Large: Rebecca Kaplan
• Oakland City Council, District 1 (North Oakland): Richard Raya #1, Amy Lemley #2, Dan Kalb #3
• Oakland City Council, District 7 (Deep East Oakland): Sheryl Walton

City of Berkeley Measures (I put these all together in one long post): 

• Yes on M: Berkeley Streets & Watershed Bond
• Yes on N & O: Berkeley Pools Bond & Parcel Tax
• Yes on P: Raise Gann Limit
• Yes on Q: Modernize language for Utility Users Tax
• Yes on R: Rational Redistricting
• No on S: Wrong solution to a real nuisance
• Yes on T: Approve city's Rezoning for West Berkeley
• No on U: the Berkeley political gridlock ordinance
• No on V: More gridlock, financial reporting style

Oakland City Council District 1: Raya #1, Lemley #2, Kalb #3

This is an interesting race. North Oakland's District 1 has been Jane Brunner's seat for 16 years. She's stepping down to run for City Attorney, so it is an open seat. There are seven candidates, no obvious front-runner, and a lot of good ideas from good people. I don't get to vote in this race, but if I did, here's the three I would vote for, using the ranked-choice voting to the limit. I think any of these candidates would be a good councilmember and I'd look forward to working with them. See the bottom of this post for a summary of some links about the whole race.

#1 Richard Raya: Richard is a smart guy with a long track record in North Oakland and in pushing for effective change. He's got great background as a budget analyst, working both in local government and within public interest groups influencing local and state governments. He has a compelling personal story: parents were farmworkers, he got his life on track through California schools, and he's raised two sons (partially as a single dad). He is my kind of environmentalist: he wants to protect the environment and make sure that low-income families and people of color, who often are hurt the most by environmental problems, benefit from the solutions. He has good ideas and expertise on crime-prevention ("Operation Ceasefire" has been effective in other cities -- he wants to bring it to Oakland). He was a PTA President. And his spouse (Marisa Raya) is a smart urban planner. Full disclosure: Richard sits on the Board of TransForm, the organization where I've worked for 14 years. He brings a great combination of that green eyeshade budget-watching mentality as well as sound analysis and a great heart for the political decisions.

#2 Amy Lemley: Amy is another smart candidate, the only woman in the race (what's up with that!), and has a very strong background on youth and schools. She started First Place for Youth, a nonprofit that finds affordable housing for youth out of foster care. She brings a keen analytical eye to a wide variety of policy issues and she's got strong training in policy analysis. Like Richard, she's got a smart spouse (Justin Horner), Brunner's former chief of staff and a savvy environmental advocate. Full disclosure: I have lots of friends and colleagues who are backing Amy.

#3 Dan Kalb: yet another really smart candidate (3 for 3!). Dan is an experienced public interest and environmental advocate, a policy analyst, community service volunteer, and a progressive reformer. Most of his professional experience is on environmental issues (Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club), and a lot of that was at the state level. But he also has experience bringing those concerns down to the local level, and he wants to make Oakland a hub for clean tech. Full disclosure: I have served on the Board of the League of Conservation Voters of the East Bay for the past few years (Dan stepped down when he began his run for this seat), and I've known him as a committed environmentalist through that.

If you want more info, here's a few other resources:

• East Bay Express article (of course it simplifies some of the candidates, but whaddya expect!).
• District 1 City Council candidates take questions from Oakland residents -- short blurbs from all 7 candidates' responses
• Okay Contra Costa Times article (not as much info as East Bay Express)

Oakland City Council District 7: Sheryl Walton

I've known Sheryl Walton since 1997. I met her when she was a very effective organizer for the "Healthy Neighborhoods Project" run by the Contra Costa health department. She connects with people, she's a champion for low-income families, and she's raised her son in East Oakland. She's smart, she knows where to go for good advice.

She would be a significant improvement on the incumbent, Larry Reid. Mr. Reid has championed the $500 million Oakland Airport Connector boondoggle. In the forums where I have seen him represent Oakland, he sometimes simply does not show up, leaving Oakland without effective representation on county entities. 

Ms. Walton does have some good endorsements, such as the Sierra Club, Alameda County Central Labor Council, and Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. Since Mr. Reid has been in office for 15 years, she has a steep uphill battle to unseat him. 

Oakland City Council At-Large: Rebecca Kaplan

I'm a big fan of Rebecca Kaplan. I've known her since I started being involved in politics in the East Bay, and I've appreciated working with her as a colleague and an ally ever since. I endorsed her in 2008 when she won this seat: "she is smart, politically savvy, and she knows how to get things done with people she doesn't agree with. She has strong ethics, she is smart and insightful, and she connects with people." She's also hilarious. I worked with her as a colleague for a year back in 2001, and she was a terrific organizer and policy advocate. She's got a great vision for the city: green, just, inclusive, vibrant, and safe. I was delighted when she won in 2008.

I hope she can survive the challenge from longtime Oakland political heavyweight Ignacio de la Fuente. This is a bit odd -- he's giving up his safe seat in the Fruitvale to run for this at-large seat. As my friend Nathan Landau says, "De La Fuente offers wheeling and dealing, support for ineffective and civil liberties busting gang injunctions, and hostility to city employee labor, even though he is a union official himself."

Oakland Mayor & City Council

Summary:
Mayor: Rebecca Kaplan (1st), Don Perata (2nd), Jean Quan (3rd)
Council District 4: Libby Schaaf
Council District 2: Jennifer Pae

I don't live in Oakland, but I interact with Oakland's political world a fair amount through my work. I also sit on the Board of the League of Conservation Voters of the East Bay. We interview candidates, debate their relative merits, and make endorsements from an environmental perspective. I learned a lot about Oakland's races that way this year too.

Mayor: Rebecca Kaplan (1st), Don Perata (2nd), Jean Quan (3rd)

I am happy to say that I would be comfortable with all three of the front-runners in the mayoral race.

Rebecca Kaplan (1st): I am delighted to again get to strongly recommend someone I know well. Rebecca Kaplan won election to the At-Large council seat just two years ago, and before that was a smart and enthusiastic member of the AC Transit Board of Directors for six years. She has succeeded each place because she is smart, politically savvy, and good at getting things done with people she does not agree with. She has strong ethics, she is smart and insightful, and she connects with people. These are also the same reasons my organization, TransForm, hired her back on 2001. She was incredibly effective.

She also has experience as a civil-rights attorney, legislative aide, and an outreach consultant protecting Oakland residents from predatory loans and foreclosures. She will be a great policy-maker and would be a great re-start for a city that has had tough times the past several years. Lots of other people also endorse her as the FIRST CHOICE on the Oakland Mayoral ballot.

While Rebecca is far and away my first choice, I know you get to mark 3. And with so many people in the race, you should. 2nd place is tight for me, but I'll go with ...

Don Perata (2nd): I know, he's been in Sacramento for umpteen years. I know, he knocks heads together. I know, he's worked with lots of people I don't like. But damnit, the man is effective. And his positions are close enough to mine on many issues that I'm ok taking the bad with the good. If Oakland isn't going to get Rebecca (who I'll agree with almost entirely but who will have some challenges getting things done), I want Oakland to have someone who will make the city run well. I disagree with those who think he's a rerun of Dellums -- Perata would be engaged. On transportation issues, I've seen him take strong and principled stands, often even though they weren't very popular at first, and work hard at them.

Jean Quan (3rd): Jean is my third choice, but it is close. She's been pretty good in city hall, seems to mostly work well with others, and was on the School Board before that (judge for yourself whether she did a good job -- I don't know). I know of her having done good things to protect California's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law at the League of Cities, working with cities around the state.

Like I said, any of them as mayor would be a step up from Dellums, who never really wanted the job and has not done well.

Council District 4: Libby Schaaf
I've heard great things about Libby from everyone I've talked with, including several work friends who are working on her campaign. Read a great writeup from V Smoothe/A Better Oakland blog, who absolutely gushes over her. Or check out Libby's own website.

Council District 2: Jennifer Pae
It is hard to run against an incumbent who hasn't done anything scandalous. So Jennifer Pae probably won't beat Pat Kernighan. That's too bad, as she looks pretty good. Smart, thoughtful, politically savvy, involved (Young Dems, Obama campaign), young and energetic. I've been less impressed with Kernighan.

Oakland Ballot measures:
I don't know enough about the ballot measures to take positions on them. Check out other people I like who've made endorsements for other East Bay races.

Nov 2008 Summary of Local Recommendations

Here are my final recommendations on local candidates and measures. These cover everything I vote on in Berkeley (including Special Districts), plus some races in Oakland, El Cerrito, and Marin/Sonoma where I've got good background knowledge.

If you're looking for my recommendations on State Propositions, click here.

Comments are welcome.

Federal & State Races
Barbara Lee for US Congress District 9
Loni Hancock for State Senate 9th District
Nancy Skinner for State Assembly 14th District
Dennis Hayashi for Superior Court Judge #9

East Bay Special Districts
H.E. Christian (Chris) Peeples for AC Transit Director, At-Large
Lynette Sweet for BART Board District 7
Tom Radulovich for BART Board District 9
Whitney Dotson for EBRPD Director, Ward 1
Doug Linney for EBMUD Director, Ward 5

YES YES YES on V V: Keep AC Transit affordable for seniors & youth
YES on WW for East Bay parks

Berkeley Candidates
Tom Bates for Mayor
Darryl Moore for City Council District 2
Terry Doran for City Council District 4
Laurie Capitelli for City Council District 5
- no endorsement for City Council District 6
Rent Board: Drake, Townley, Shelton, Tregub, and Harrison
School Board: Beatriz Leyva-Cutler and probably Priscilla Myrick

Berkeley Measures
YES on FF to Upgrade Berkeley's Branch Libraries
YES on GG for Berkeley's Fire Departments
YES on HH to Raise Berkeley's spending limit
YES on II: Administrative Change
(Tentative) NO on JJ: We need reasonable regulation on Medical Marijuana
NO NO NO on KK: Anti-Transit, Anti-Environment, Anti-Government
YES on LL: A more sensible historic landmarks process

Oakland Candidates + Measures
Rebecca Kaplan for Oakland City Council At-Large
NO on N: Poorly conceived Schools Parcel Tax
NO on OO: No ballot-box budget, even for kids

San Francisco
No on P: Don't mess up the transportation authority

El Cerrito Candidate
Ann Cheng for City Council

Sonoma/Marin
YES YES YES on Q for the SMART train

NO on OO: No ballot-box budget, even for kids

Kids are good. Ballot-box budgeting is bad. This measure says it will help youth in Oakland by setting aside a specific portion of the city's general fund for children's services. It is strongly supported by an organization I work with and respect, Kids First!

But there are two humongous things wrong with Measure OO:

• One, the city already has the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, a good program that supports public and private youth programs. The City Council recently renewed it through 2020.
  
• Two, ballot-box budgeting like this will hurt all the other parts of the city's budget, including many that serve kids, such as libraries and parks. This would be a permanent set-aside for one particular program, regardless of future needs.
  

Especially in a year when Oakland's trying to figure out how to handle a $42 million budget shortfall, this ballot-box budgeting is a bad idea. It feels good, but it'll have terrible unintended consequences.

I don't live in Oakland, so take this recommendation with that caveat. But I've heard confirmation from enough Oakland residents to strongly recommend that you vote No on OO.

NO on N: Poorly Conceived Parcel Tax for Oakland Schools

You know there's something behind the story when the teacher's union opposes a tax that would provide more funding for schools. There definitely is.

Oakland schools need help, no question about it. But not this kind of help. This is an initiative put on the ballot by the state folks who are currently running Oakland schools, with little consultation with school officials in Oakland. Apparently it was rushed on the ballot, which is why there's no opposing argument.

Measure N would raise the parcel tax by $120/year (a lot to ask for!) and use the money to raise teacher salaries and support charter schools. But the measure is not clear about how they'd choose how much money to which charter schools. And the teacher's union says they don't want the raise (first time I've ever heard that). Here are some articles for more info:

• "Parcel tax for Oakland school teachers faces intense opposition," Contra Costa Times, 10/6/2008.
• "Oakland voters should reject the flawed Measure N," editorial in Oakland Tribune and other MediaNews papers, 10/20/2008.
• Smartvoter.org background info
  

I don't vote in Oakland, so take this recommendation with that grain of salt. But I'd recommend you vote No on N.

Rebecca Kaplan for Oakland At Large Councilmember

I am delighted to get to strongly recommend someone I know so well. Rebecca Kaplan has been a smart and enthusiastic member of the AC Transit Board of Directors for six years. She has succeeded there because she is smart, politically savvy, and because she knows how to get things done with people she doesn't agree with. She has strong ethics, she is smart and insightful, and she connects with people. These are also the same reasons my organization, the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, hired her as a policy advocate for a one-year campaign in 2001. She was incredibly effective.

She also has experience as a civil-rights attorney, legislative aide, and an outreach consultant protecting Oakland residents from predatory loans and foreclosures. She will be a great policy-maker and she has the potential to become a bridge-builder on the Oakland City Council.

I don't know as much about Kerry Hamill - nor do many voters, because she hasn't done too many speaking engagements. She used to work for Perata, now is a PR person for BART (two transit people in the same race!) and is currently an Oakland School Board member. But from what I can find, Kaplan is by far the better candidate.

For some examples of others who have looked at this race, see:

• "A Better Oakland" blog post on their debate.
• Daily Kos post excited about Kaplan.
• Kaplan's endorsements.
• News about Kaplan.