It’s on: the 2022 Mayoral race in Oakland, that is. After months of speculation about who will and who won’t run, we now know the first announced candidate—and it’s not a surprise. Loren Taylor, the City Council member from District 6 (Maxwell Park, Millsmont, Havenscourt, Eastmont), yesterday declared his intention to “pull Oakland together” if he’s elected--with “public safety” at the top of his to-do list.
Candidates for Mayor usually have clearly-defined issues they hope will resonate with the public, which they can ride into successful campaigns. For example, Jerry Brown ran on his “10K” plan to develop downtown. What is Taylor’s issue? Right now, it’s supporting the Oakland Police Department. Taylor was one of only two council members (with Treva Reid) who voted against defunding OPD at the Council’s infamous June 24 meeting.
It was a vote he had to make, given the anxiety of his constituents about crime; but it was also a vote his political calculations told him he could use to his own advantage. Taylor sensed a changing mood in Oakland, as crime soared out of control, and people from the Hills to the Bay, from the San Leandro line up to Emeryville, began demanding more protection.
Taylor might have secured his dominance of the pro-cop movement (Reid was never very effective in that regard), except that another City Council member, watching from the sidelines, and also with ambitions for higher office, saw what was happening, and decided to pre-empt him, if she could. That was Sheng Thao (District 4), who, in a stunning 180-degree reversal of her previous position, on Sept. 8 proposed adding two new Police Academies, in order to increase the number of sworn officers in OPD, which has been hemorrhaging cops in recent years. In so doing, Thao caused jaws to drop among the political cognoscenti: here she was calling for more cops in September, barely 10 weeks after siding with the defunders at the June 24 vote. Flip-flops are hardly unknown among politicians, but Thao’s was among the most stunningly cynical I can remember in watching Oakland politics for nearly 40 years. It was an embarrassment—but it may have worked, if she can establish herself as a defender of public safety. Taylor’s opponent next year looks like it will be Sheng Thao.
What’s really interesting about this is that the two top contenders for Mayor now have established their bona fides as ardent supporters of OPD. How quickly things change! Earlier this year, the anti-cop brigade at City Hall, led by Carroll Fife and Nikki Fortunato Bas, seemed on the verge of a major victory: slashing OPD’s budget by up to 50% and diverting those tens of millions of dollars to mysterious, ill-defined “anti-violence” programs that can be little more than slush funds. Now, after a brutal summer of murders, carjackings, home invasions, muggings and auto thefts, public sentiment has swung so decisively that the Oakland Mayor’s race will be determined by this question: Which of the two top candidates supports OPD the most? Frankly, it’s a debate I welcome.
Steve Heimoff