AC Transit At-Large Seat: maybe Dollene Jones, maybe write-in you!

There's no good candidate in this race.

Incumbent Joel Young was appointed in 2009 to fill the seat of Rebecca Kaplan, who had just been elected to the Oakland City Council, and then elected to a full term in 2010. I supported him then.

Since then, he has made some missteps, to put it mildly. He got confidential information about AC Transit's strategy defending a lawsuit over wages, and then used that information to help file lawsuits against two other similar transit districts. Then he went back and reviewed the district's case file, including more confidential information, to help his efforts in one of his lawsuits. Not cool. The rest of the AC Transit Board didn't think it was cool either, and they censured him (see also Matier & Ross piece). In 2011, he was accused of domestic violence. No wonder he's not campaigning -- he probably doesn't want to answer any questions. There's more, but that's enough for me -- I won't vote for him.

Unfortunately, neither of the other candidates is a great alternative.

Dollene Jones is a former bus driver and just plain doesn't demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the system. I'm sure she was a nice bus driver, and probably understands it well from that perspective. But she couldn't be bothered to submit a ballot argument -- c'mon! Her website is about as minimal as it gets. She does appear to have collected a few endorsements. The Greens endorsed her because they think she'll do less harm than Young. Perhaps, although read her questionnaire responses to them -- not impressive.

Adrienne Andrews didn't write a ballot statement either, does not appear to have any campaign, and her questionnaire responses are even worse.

The Contra Costa Times is the only place I can find that wrote a comparative analysis of the candidates, and they concluded "no endorsement." I might vote for Dollene, 'cuz she's not unethical. Or I might write-in a friend (anybody want my vote?).