We published this article last week. Since that time, the candidates we thought would win did, in fact, win. The presidential contest is still undecided. But locally, Wilma Chan easily defeated Assemblywoman Audie Bock for her seat in the State Assembly. Bock made many mistakes and missteps, as Chan's skills as a politican grew the more she campaigned. She got the Black vote.
For the supervisorial
seat Supervisor Mary King is vacating, Nate Miley easily defeated Audrey
Oliver-Rice who put $100,000 of her own money into her campaign. Miley
had the Black churches of Oakland behind him.
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The East Bay races are up and running. Some are more vigorous than others. And some are just about dead.
Don Perata is doing very little campaigning. He doesn't have to. His Republican opponent is out of cash and out of votes in this heavily Democratic county. So he is expected to win easily. Sixty-six percent of his district are registered Democrats, with 12 percent Republicans. So this race offers no excitement at all. This is good only for Perata.
The race to fill Supervisor Mary King's seat is a rich horse race between millionaire business woman, Audrey Oliver-Rice, and three term City Councilman, Nate Miley. These two candidates have spent a combined total of more than $400,000. This is a new record in campaign spending for the County's supervisorial seat.
These two well-financed campaigns are interesting to observe. Audrey Oliver-Rice has been endorsed by Supervisor King. In an exclusive interview with Gibbs's reporter, James Kellybrew, Mary King gave her reasons for endorsing Rice. Most of her money, it is reported, comes from outside the county.
This Fourth Supervisorial District has been occupied by Mary King for 12 years. She offered her reasons for stepping down in her exclusive with Gibbs weeks ago. The district covers East Oakland, Castro Valley and Dublin--Oakland is the vote prize.
Audrey Oliver-Rice has actually outspent Miley ($250,000 to his $180,000). She has also put $100,000 of her own money into the campaign. Her funding sources are reportedly from outside the county among her business associates, hometown friends, and relatives. She is the founder of a computer consulting firm and has also received funds from friends in Denver and Seattle--she lived in Denver and her brother served as Mayor in Seattle.
Miley has less money, but he has greater support in Oakland, where the majority of the voters are found. He has spent years cultivating his relations with Black churches and organizations, as well as business interests in the City. That will probably stand instead of his money. In a local interview for a story Gibbs is working on, a pastor of a mega-church stated that Miley would be coming by his congregation to be recognized at a Sunday service.
Whereas churches can not endorse candidates, they have a way of nodding approval to their congregations. This is much like the various political parties use soft money for Issue Ads. Miley has been effective in courting the churches; Oliver-Rice has not, and that could be her mistake in this contest The political paradigm in the Black community is that a candidate seeking Black vote must go to church and get them. Astute politicians know this. This has been much of the reason for the rise in the political leadership of Black ministers.
The Contra Costa Times reports Miley's campaign manager as saying that Oliver-Rice is forced to draw on outside contributors and her own resources because she lacks grassroots support. "She gets money from people who know nothing about Oakland," said Joe DeVries. "We get money from sources within Oakland who know Nate's record."
But Audrey Oliver-Rice received two contributions from sources in Dublin, one from a rancher and one from the Tri-Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women. These are the most outstanding local contributions.
Although this is seemingly the Time of the Woman, Miley seems to have the voter edge in this race. This contest is interesting because of two aspects: Oliver-Rice has money, the endorsement of Mary King who is stepping down and the momentum of the Time of the Woman; Miley, on the other hand, has the Black church and most of Oakland. Both are Black, so race is not a factor. Gender is, and in the Black community there is usually a trend toward male leadership if both parties seem competent or equal.
The Wilma Chan-Audie Bock race for Assembly District 16 seat, formerly held by Elihu Harris and lost by him in a surprising win by Bock, is an interesting race as well. It is interesting because of a number of factors.
Audie Bock, a Piedmont resident, was a stealth candidate when Elihu Harris thought he was a shoe-in for a return to that seat after being Mayor of Oakland for a number of years. She won as a Green Party candidate; Harris did not take her or that party seriously enough. Bock became, with her win, the highest ranking Green Party office holder, but she has made a number of serious mistakes that have angered her voter base--she reregistered her party affiliations as an Independent Party candidate; she has never been able to get a foothold in the community of Oakland..
The consequence of her change of party affiliation angered her supporters in the Green Party, and she has been unable to raise the needed funds to run an effective campaign. Of course, neither of the two major parties has offered her any support. She has been endorsed, but those endorsement are not significant in comparison to Chan's. Her endorsements are the Alameda Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, California Nurses Association, California Federation of Teachers, California League of Conservation Voters, California Nurses Association, East Bay Automotive Machinists, Lodge No. 1546, Piedmont Firefighters Local 2683, Sierra Club, Teamsters Local 70, Teamsters Public Affairs Council.
Then there was the staff fiasco. She fired her staff in mass, and they went public, stating that she was unconnected to the community and the needs of her constituency, she was getting advice from Sacramento consultants who were unaware of Oakland's needs, and that she was a political neophyte. Part of her problem had been that she had hired the wrong people from the start--both in Oakland and in Sacramento. The neophyte label has stuck and hurts her.
Since Bock cannot raise enough money to run an effective election, and the Democrats assume that her seat is rightly theirs, they intend to retake it through strong support for Wilma Chan.
Wilma Chan, on the other hand, is an Asian American mother and Alameda County Supervisor. She is articulate, friendly, and smart. She knows how to mingle and go where the vote is. And she has the financial backing of the Democratic party. She has more endorsements than Bock--California Superintendent of Public Education Delaine Eastin; Congresswoman Barbara Lee;, State Senators Don Perata and Hilda Solis; Assemblymembers Dion Louise Aroner, Ellen Corbett, John Dutra, Mike Honda, Herb Wesson, George Nakano; Alameda County Superintendent of Public Education, Sheila Jordan; Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown; Alameda Mayor Ralph Appezzato; Alona Clifton, Peralta Community College District Trustee; Rev. Jesse Jackson; California Teachers Association; etc.--more than we will cite in this column. They represent a foothold in Oakland. This has been Bock's Achilles Heel. Chan, with the guidance of the Democrats, has become aware that Blacks will vote for Asians if those votes are courted and respected. And that is exactly what she is doing.
Chan has made none of the mistakes that Bock has made, although she has a political record that can be examined. Her list of endorsements are from the who's who of Alameda County's political establishment. She is a pioneer in that she would be the first Asian-American from Alameda County to be elected to the Assembly--that, too, is a positive she has in the Black community; Blacks love and support underdogs and pioneers. (March Fong was elected to the Secretary of State position from Alameda County.) She also represents the growing political awareness and strength of Asian American voters.
Chan has been more visible in her campaigning than Bock. And with all of Chan's positives and all of Bock's negatives, Chan should unseat Bock come next week.
The Assembly 16 District race and the Supervisorial race between Oliver-Rice and Nate Miley make for interesting political theater to be observed and enjoyed. An excellent site to visit for more information for your vote decision is the Smart Voter site. []
