Oakland News: Raiders Schedule, Kathy Neal Backs Rob Bonta, Mayor Recall Dead

The National Football League released the 2012 schedule, which includes that for the Oakland Raiders, on Tuesday. What’s interesting is, the Raiders Schedule doesn’t look much different than the one for 2011 or 2010 – all of them start with the Monday Night game against the San Diego Chargers at home at the Oakland Coliseum.

(Just thinking, wouldn’t it have been cool to have the Raiders opener at the new California Memorial Stadium? Just to give it a nice christening?)

Anyway, the schedule beyond the Chargers is challenging. The second game has the new, unknown Miami Dolphins, and in Miami. And then November is a bruising stretch that has the Raiders playing three playoff teams from 2011: The New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati Bengals, and it starts with the Baltimore Ravens. If we want to see where this Raiders team’s going, November’s going to present a great way to find out.

Finally, the Raiders close out against the Chiefs, Panthers, and Chargers. And before that they get Denver at the Coliseum for a Thursday night game. So, in two weeks, the Raiders will get the NFL’s best veteran QB, and then it’s best rookie QB from 2011.

Here’s the Raiders 2012 Schedule:

Sep. 10 San Diego Chargers (Mon) 7:15p
Sep. 16 at Miami Dolphins 1:15p
Sep. 23 Pittsburgh Steelers 1:15p
Sep. 30 at Denver Broncos 1:05p
Oct. 14 at Atlanta Falcons 10:00a
Oct. 21 Jacksonville Jaguars 1:15p
Oct. 28 at Kansas City Chiefs 1:05p
Nov. 4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1:05p
Nov. 11 at Baltimore Ravens 10:00a
Nov. 18 New Orleans Saints 1:05p
Nov. 25 at Cincinnati Bengals 10:00a
Dec. 2 Cleveland Browns 1:15p
Dec. 6 Denver Broncos (Thurs) 5:20p
Dec. 16 Kansas City Chiefs 1:15p
Dec. 23 at Carolina Panthers 10:00a
Dec. 30 at San Diego Chargers 1:15p

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Kathy Neal Endorses Rob Bonta

This letter’s from Kathy Neal’s people – she ran for the California 18th District Assembly Seat, but dropped out February 10th. After giving it some thought, she elected to back Alameda City Councilman and Vice Mayor Rob Bonta, and not Abel Guillen or Joel Young.

Neal:

OAKLAND – Former Assembly District 18 candidate Kathy Neal today announced her endorsement of Alameda Vice Mayor Rob Bonta for State Assembly.
“I was an Assembly candidate because the people of Oakland need and deserve a legislator with a combination of integrity, passion and proven ability to turn things around,” Neal said. “After I withdrew my candidacy, I considered the remaining candidates with that purpose in mind. As an accomplished advocate for social and economic justice, elected official who has successfully grappled with a wide array of issues and dedicated husband and father, Rob Bonta is the person Oakland must have in the legislature. “As a Vice Mayor, Rob has balanced budgets, fought for small business and improved the lives of public school children. He has made a significant and meaningful difference in the lives of everyday people. And the fact that, as a young lawyer, Rob worked pro-bono on a successful
case to help stop racial profiling in California sealed the deal for me. That’s why I join with Oakland’s police officers, firefighters and City Council President Larry Reid in supporting Rob Bonta for State Assembly.”

Ok, why did Kathy back Rob and not Abel or Joel? Well, with Abel, I am just speculating that his role in Elihu Harris’ ouster from the Peralta Community College Chancellor job had something to do with it, even though it’s not something Neal, the former wife of Harris, would admit.

As I personally told Guillen when we ran into each other at a Cal game last fall, that took a lot for me to get over. But we had a good talk about it, and I’ve been cool with Abel for some time since then. But that’s me; what’s in Kathy’s head is a different story.

And why not Joel Young? Well, after the statements Neal made about Joel and his problems and how his supporters should not back him, but were doing so, you think Kathy would actually do an about-face and back Joel herself?

Oakland Mayor Recall Effort Almost Dead

As predicted, the efforts (plural) to recall Oakland Mayor Jean Quan are dying due mostly to lack of real enthusiasm for the effort, followed by lack of cooperation, and then lack of money. The deadline to get 20,000 signatures is May 14th, and on March 6th, one group that was headed by Oakland codger Charlie Pine said they could not get the number of sigs needed because they didn’t have enough paid canvassers.

Considering the number of people, including elected officials, who told me they could get 60 people to get the lists developed, saying that the need was to have paid canvassers is a blow to the idea that recalling Mayor Jean Quan was what “everyone” wanted.

So much for everyone.

In the heat of the moment of the Occupy Oakland violence, getting Jean out seemed like a good idea – but once the head cooled it started to look a bit hasty. But that’s me – the bottom line is there are a ton of Oakland people who talk shit about recalling Jean but at the end of the day aren’t determined enough to actually make it happen. Then, there’s Gene Hazzard.

I don’t have to call Gene for him to let me know “things are on track” because he’s always been a glass-full kind of guy. Godzilla could come up, ready to fire radio-active breath, and Gene would tell you Godzilla was his buddy.

The proof will be in the delivery of the signatures, but I have to say the entire effort’s another sad example of how it’s hard to get two Oaklanders to agree to do anything outside of where to get dinner or throw a party.

So Quan remains, and while the climate of hostility toward Jean has diminished, it’s still dangerously high. The Zennieometer of political buzz direction shows Jean’s clocking in at a 7 where 1 is great. A 7 means people are talking crap about you online, often. It’s also in the red zone – 8 or 9, and people talk about recall, and start doing something about it at 10.

Other Notes

On May 16th, Rebecca Saltzman kicks off her campaign for BART Board in, not Oakland (?!) but in Berkeley at the new Bec’s Bistro (which Cal Football fans will recall used to be called “Becketts”) 2271 Shattuck Ave. Ok, but I gotta be honest and ask why, for a person who spent a lot of time blogging about (and presumably loving) Downtown Oakland, did Rebecca select a place not in Downtown Oakland?

Stay tuned.