This video was made on the evening of the June 12th Oakland City Council District Three Candidates Forum. This blogger was fresh in town from what was my fifth trip back to Atlanta, Georgia this year so far (in fact, I didn’t plan to attend the event because of the flight schedule), and took a walk along Bellevue just as Sean Sullivan was walking out of a building with a small group of people. So, he stopped and gave me the first interview in the video.
Sean said the forum was too weighted toward general questions about Oakland issues, than toward issues that concerned the residents of District Three, which would allow him to talk about a number of accomplishments he played a role in achieving. Fortunately, that will not be the only District Three forum or debate.
Then, just a beat after Sean left, Oakland Business Owner and Activist Ken Pratt walked by, and while he’s not running for the Oakland City Council District 3 Seat, he did lead one of the recall efforts, so we started to talk about that and his pick for District 3. Pratt also could not resist taking a dig at Oakland Mayor Quan, pointing out that all of the candidates questioned Quan’s leadership.
Regarding the effort to recall Mayor Quan, when I asked Ken what happened, he said “Gene Hazzard. Gene Hazzard. Gene Hazzard.” On the matter of his choice for Oakland City Council District 3, Ken could tell me that he wasn’t for Sean Sullivan, but could not remember the full names of the people he was for; Pratt could muster the name “Lynette.”
Just as we were about to talk more in depth about the topic, the “Lynette” he referred to walked by: Lynette Gibson McElhaney.
Ms. McElhaney viewed the forum differently than Mr. Sullivan, taking time to praise Adams Point for coming out to meet the candidates and hear what they had to say. Lynette’s strategy seems to play more on the fact that Rank Choice Voting will be used again in this race, as was the case in 2010. She’s right in that you can vote for the three people you think are the best in rank order, one, two, and three. However, I don’t know who’s working a deal to game RCV this time around, as was done 2010 between Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and then-Oakland Councilmember and now Mayor Jean Quan.
Sorry to those who object to my use of the term “game” but that’s the best way to describe what happened during the 2010 Oakland Mayor’s Race.
Stay tuned.