You may recall I wrote yesterday how surprised I was to see Nikki Fortunato Bas at the police press conference on Tuesday. It’s rare as unicorns to see a City Council member at these things, and I just couldn’t figure out why Bas was there. Then I saw her on the evening news on Channel 2 on Tuesday night, when she was interviewed right after the press conference.
She repeated her usual lines about how unacceptable all the murder is. I had a thought that made me very uncomfortable, so I packed it away in the back of my mind. Then, yesterday morning, I was reading the San Francisco Chronicle, and there was Bas again, being interviewed about the Tuesday murders, again talking about how “unacceptable” they are; and my thought of the previous day returned, this time more compellingly.
Did Nikki Fortunato Bas use the multiple murders of Sept. 19-20 in order to get free publicity in the media?
She’s in a tight race for re-election. Her polling, I’m told, is dismal: she’s widely perceived in her district as cold, arrogant, and out of touch. Her opponent, Harold Lowe, is warm, grounded, a “people person” with an inspiring resume of business achievement and community volunteerism. With the election just six weeks away, all the candidates are scrambling for any publicity they can get—and there’s nothing better than the San Francisco Chronicle and the evening news on KTVU. Nikki Bas got to deliver her one-liners to a vast audience.
I can’t know for sure if Bas went to the OPD press conference because she knew there would be lots of media there. With three murders in the space of an hour, I realized the conference would be more heavily attended than usual. And I’m sure Bas knew that, if she did go, she’d be asked afterwards for interviews.
What’s depressing is the lack of good taste and respect Bas showed giving a political interview immediately after a press conference in which the atmosphere was so mournful. This was a very solemn occasion: the police grieving, everyone depressed, three corpses still warm, and Bas giving a campaign speech. Had I been Bas, I would have explained to the reporters that it wasn’t an appropriate time or place to be interviewed. Apparently, that thought didn’t occur to Bas.
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And on another front, the San Francisco Chronicle—that arbiter of reality—today declared the Oakland Mayor contest “a two-candidate race.” That was after four Mayors—Schaaf, Breed, Steinberg and Liccardo—came out in support of Loren Taylor. Sheng Thao also is running for Mayor, and the Chronicle has concluded that no one else has a chance.
We’ll see. But what I want to focus on now is how unsuitable Thao is. Her support is almost entirely limited to the Big Unions that traditionally have controlled Oakland politics. Do you have any understanding of how or why Big Labor selects its candidates? Neither do I. No one ever tells us these things. What secret deals go down, what dark money is involved, what clandestine promises do these candidates make to the union bosses? We’ll never know.
In the Chronicle article, Thao said something that made me do a spit take. “Thao said Schaaf’s endorsement of Taylor means he represents the status quo, which ‘isn’t working.’” There’s a Yiddish term for this sort of nonsense: Chutzpah. You almost have to admire Thao’s audacity. The “status quo,” Ms. Thao, is you, along with Nikki Bas, Rebecca Kaplan and Carroll Fife. Libby Schaaf is a moderate; the four of you are radical leftwingers. Under Oakland’s current system, we have a “weak mayor,” unable to veto votes on the City Council unless there’s a tie. This is why one or more of the four council members so frequently abstain from voting: to make sure that there’s not a tie vote, thus ensuring their “progressive” policies will win. The four have gotten us into this hideous mess. For Thao to literally lie about “the status quo” is further reason why she is intellectually and morally unfit to be Mayor.
The Coalition stands by Seneca Scott for Mayor. Should he falter, however, I plan to transfer my support to Loren Taylor. Sheng Thao would be an unmitigated disaster.
Steve Heimoff