Carroll Fife Leads District 3 Council Race, Incumbent McElhaney Trails Kaplan and Kalb hold off big money opponents; Reid leads in District 7; Gallo leads in District 5
Parent advocates lead privatizer-funded school board campaigns
By Ken Epstein
In the midst of a nail-biting national election, which still overshadows all other news, local progressives have mobilized hundreds of volunteers and built winning campaigns as they appear to triumph in Oakland’s local City Council and school board elections. Electing a popular progressive leader to the council, they also beat back corporate billionaire-fueled campaigns to eliminate council’s anti-racist, pro-renter, affordable housing and police-reform leaders and maintain a pro-corporate school board committed to continuous budget cuts and closing neighborhood schools. The major apparent upset on the council this week, wellknown local activist and reform leader Carroll Fife led what she called a massive “people powered” campaign leading twoterm District 3 Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney.
Rebecca Kaplan At-Large
District 1 Dan Kalb
District 3 Carroll Fife
Sam Davis District 1
VanCedric Williams District 3
Mike Hutchinson District 5
District 5 Noel Gallo
Ben “Coach” Tapscott District 7
District 7 Treva Reid
Clifford Thompson District 7
Oakland Post
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“Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
postnewsgroup.com
57th Year, No. 20
Weekly Edition. Edition. Nov. 4-10, 2020
Biden/Harris Lead Trump/Pence 253 to 214, with 71 Electoral College Votes Still Available
Shown are members of the Oakland Coalition for Police Accountability, who have been pushing for years to overcome city administrative opposition to police reform.
Oakland Measure Strengthening Police Commission is Passing with 81% Approval By Ken Epstein
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris and presidential candidate Joe Biden. By Post Staff
As of 3:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, November 5, former Vice Pres. Joe Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, are inching to the magic number of 270 electors while Pres. Donald J. Trump and Vice Pres.
Mike Pence lost court cases in Georgia with 16 electoral votes outstanding; Michigan, which awarded its 16 electoral votes to Biden. The Trump administration had a small victory in the courts over the ability to observe vote counting in Pennsylvania, which has 20
electoral votes outstanding. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuits are the groundwork for contesting a Biden/Harris victory. Results from North Carolina (15 votes), Nevada (6 votes), and Arizona (11 votes) are also not final.
Measure S1, which gives the voter-approved Police Commission more teeth, is passing with 81 percent of the vote. According to League of Women Voters of Oakland, which endorsed S1, the measure, “clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the Commission, the Agency, and the Inspector General in a manner that will enable the Commission to exercise
City’s Annual Community Thanksgiving Feast to Be Mobile This Year Oakland (BCN)
Oakland’s annual community Thanksgiving dinner is going to look a lot different this year because of the pandemic, city officials announced Friday. Thousands of low-income families and unhoused people have been served a traditional holiday feast each year for the past 28 years at one location, but this year meals will be provided in a different way and under a new name. Meals will be cooked at the Oakland Marriott, where the feast was held last year, and delivered to food pantry sites in the city. The event is now called the Community Day of Thanks and organizers are providing 1,000 more meals than last year’s 2,000 for a couple of
reasons. “The fact that it’s in the community, it enables more people to access it,” so there might be more demand, said Talia Yaffa Rubin, a licensed clinical social worker with Oakland’s Human Services Department. “And I think there is just a greater need in general,” Rubin said. The Day of Thanks will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 24,
two days before the official Thanksgiving holiday. The downtown Marriott will be a staging area this year rather than the sit-down dinner site. Traditional Thanksgiving fixings are on the menu. Event organizers are planning to have meals available at the food pantry sites between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., but the time could be a little different at each site. “We’re trying to replicate
that we’re all sitting down together,” Rubin said. People who are homebound will have a meal delivered to them. Some food pantries may require people to sign up for a meal or meals while other sites may be first come, first served. The Day of Thanks is part of the city’s Hunger Program, which began in 1985 under the administration of Mayor Lionel J. Wilson. City officials are seeking donations to help with the cost of meals. A donation of $26 will pay for a meal for one person and $104 will offset the cost of meals for a family of four. “We depend on donations to execute the event,” Rubin said. Donors can take a tax deContinued on Page 10
oversight of the Police Department as intended when
the Commission was established by Measure LL in
Big Donors Influence State Ballot Propositions By Post Staff
Much was at stake for Californian in this year’s statewide initiatives – strengthening rent control, ending cash bail, providing labor rights for gig workers, ending the state’s ban on diversity and making billionaires pay increased properties. That’s why businesses spent so much to try to make sure the results would be favorable to their bottom line. At the top of this year’s spending is Proposition 22 on Tuesday’s ballot, funded by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and others, a measure designed to override a new state law that requires these companies’ ride-hailing and delivery drivers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. In this race, spending on both sides reached new heights – a record total of $202 million. While 2020’s results are not yet final, as of Wednesday afternoon, 72 percent of the estimated vote total (11.8 million votes) has been reported, and results in many of the races are clear. Late-arriving mail ballots and provisional ballots will be counted in the days and weeks after the election. Here are where the measures stand: • Proposition 14 – Medical research bonds. Passing with 51.1% “yes” votes. • Proposition 15 – Change Commercial Property Tax, failing with 51.7 “no” votes. The proposition would tax properties based on current market value rather than purchase price and increases property taxes on commercial properties for funding to local governments and schools. Though the measure is trailing, it could receive a boost from a million uncounted votes in heavily Democratic Los Angeles. • Proposition 16 - End diversity ban, failing with 56 percent “no” votes. The proposition would repeal a constitutional provision that made it unlawful for California’s state and local governments to discriminate against or grant preferential Continued on Page 10