Barbara Lee opens campaign account to run for mayor of Oakland –
Barbara Lee, a former Congresswoman from California, has officially launched her campaign to become the mayor of Oakland, filing the necessary paperwork for the upcoming special election in April. At 78 years old, Lee has a long political history, having represented the San Francisco Bay Area in Congress for 26 years. she previously ran for the Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein but was unsuccessful in the primary last year.Lee’s candidacy marks a significant return to the political arena as she seeks to take on this new role in her community.
Barbara Lee opens campaign account to run for mayor of Oakland
Former California Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat, has filed paperwork to run for mayor of Oakland in April’s special election.
The 78-year-old represented the San Francisco Bay Area city in Congress for 26 years but lost a primary election last year for the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat.
President-elect Donald Trump‘s chief antagonist, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), won the seat in the general election.
Lee came out of retirement to open a campaign account on Monday to oversee Oakland.
“The congresswoman will be making an announcement about her decision later this week,” Lee spokesman Sean Dugar said.
Lee’s name will be added to a lengthy list of people vying for the job, though her name recognition and more than two decades of public service give her an edge.
“She’s the clear front-runner, but she will have to run a campaign,” Jim Ross, a veteran Democratic strategist who is not involved in the campaign, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “She’ll still have to get out and talk to voters and lay out her plans and her vision. But I think anybody currently in the race will have a really hard time getting traction and running against her.”
Lee would be running to serve the remaining term of Sheng Thao, whom voters recalled in November. Thao, who was only on the job for two years and had her home raided by the FBI last summer, became the nation’s first mayor of a major city to be ousted in more than a decade.
There are expected to be more than a dozen candidates in the running for Thao’s job. Whichever candidate wins in April will face many challenges right off the bat.
Oakland has been struggling with high crime rates, increased homelessness, the exodus of beloved sports teams, a sluggish post-pandemic recovery, and a widening budget shortfall that is hovering around the $93 million mark.
Following Thao’s recall in November, then-Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas became interim mayor. But Bas stepped down Monday to take her new post as Alameda County supervisor. Oakland’s city council then voted to make Councilman Kevin Jenkins the new president, making him the automatic interim mayor until residents pick a replacement in April.
The cost for a special stand-alone election, determined by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, is about $19 to $21 per voter.
There are 253,015 registered voters in Oakland, which comes out to a little more than $5 million to hold the election.
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