But anyone who knows Dr. Candell realizes that’s what he means. He’s the first person who ran for Mayor to come forward and openly call for the recall of Mayor Quan.
Here’s the video:
This blogger called Dr. Candell three week ago, and he did not return the call. The reason goes back to his use of my name as if I endorsed him for Mayor of Oakland, when I did not intend to do so. I did write and support that he run for Mayor, but I did not give my permission for my name to be used as an official endorser. Moreover, I intended to do the same for Don Macleay, just so he would have enough signatures to get on the ballot. I’d have done that for anyone running for Mayor who asked me to do so.
In Dr. Candell’s case, there was no phone call to me, just a request for my signature at a church by someone associated with him. Had I sad no, I would have appeared to insult Dr. Candell, and that wasn’t my intention, but in retrospect, given the outcome, I should have not done so. Live and learn; Terrance is still hot under the collar about the matter, which is too bad. I think the video interview I conducted with him was one of the best of the 2010 election.
As written before, I openly backed Don Perata for Mayor because I’ve known him for now 19 years and he’s always supported his friends and turned his back on no one (that I know of). The only time I ever got after Don was when, in 1994, he promised that I would get the first interview with him regarding the Raiders return to Oakland, only to give it to the now-late Oakland Tribune Columnist and friend Peggy Stinette. Great for her, but Don never did that to me again.
I’ve known Don well enough to believe he would have made an excellent Mayor of Oakland, and the entire Occupy Oakland matter would have not got this far under Perata’s leadership, and I will say there would not have been the bloodshed we’ve seen.
The problem is the election became more of not wanting Don, then wanting Jean Quan, so, if you think about it, Quan started with a handicap that no other Mayor-Elect of Oakland has ever had to deal with, and that is the real problem with Ranked Choice Voting, for all of its other advantages.
Then, add the police chief issue, and then the budget issue and finally Occupy Oakland, and we see the perfect storm for where we are today in Oakland: facing the very real possibility that we could have our first Mayoral Recall Election.
But if that happens, and given that it takes just 200 signatures and $300 to run for Mayor of Oakland, a successful recall election process will mean new candidates, but it’s not clear of it will use the Ranked Choice Voting format. If it does, we could see a record number of people running for Mayor in Oakland, if you count the 2010 election with the recall vote just about two years later.
Crazy.
Stay tuned.