Vanguard News Desk Editor
OAKLAND, CA – She’s opposed unpopular U.S. wars when no one else would in her more than two decades in Congress, but now former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee said she is going to accept the “challenge” to run for mayor of Oakland in an April special election.
“I’ve never shied away from a challenge,” said progressive Democrat Lee in an emailed announcement Wednesday.
“I’m always ready to fight for Oakland. Together, we can and will restore Oakland as a beacon for innovators, artists, builders, and entrepreneurs—creating opportunities that lift all families and neighborhoods,” Lee added.
Lee, 78, was prompted to run for Oakland Mayor after voters recalled progressive Mayor Sheng Thao in November—voters also rejected Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price—when powerful business interests reportedly bankrolled the recall efforts.
Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the Afghanistan War in 2001, but ran unsuccessfully in 2024 for the U.S. Senate.
Lee is “perfect for right now. She has the progressive bonafides, but she is also willing to make compromises and she is pragmatic,” said Keally McBride, a University of San Francisco politics professor and an Oakland resident, who told the LA Times this week, “That is what Oakland is desperately needing right now.”
The Times added although locals have announced their run, several have said they will now drop out because Lee’s in the race.
Political pundit McBride predicts in the Times, “No one is going to be able to compete against her…it would be hard to get a candidate better than her.”
“Lee’s announcement generated excitement among several local community groups whose members have been lobbying her to jump in the race. They are hopeful that Lee, known in Washington for her anti-war positions and as a champion of civil rights, can usher in an era of stability in a city contending with several crises, including a gnawing budget deficit and spiking crime rates,” wrote the LA Times.
The newspaper reported that a “Coalition of local business, labor and education organizations implored Lee to run in a December letter calling for a new leader ‘who can restore integrity to the office of the mayor, unite us in a time of division, and help us address critical issues around the budget, public safety, housing, and inequity in our town.’”
Born in Texas, Lee got her master’s in social work from UC Berkeley in 1975, and founded an organization that offered mental health services to East Bay residents. She was elected to Congress in 1998 after serving in the California Legislature earlier in the 90s.
“She doesn’t need the job for her legacy,” said Ludovic Blain in the Times story. Blain, who is chief executive of the California Donor Table, a statewide network of donors who fund progressive candidates, added, “She’d be doing it to be of service, and to help and to lead.”
And in an interview with KQED Tuesday, Lee said if she decided to run—which she now has— “it’s going to be because I want to do it and I think I can help make life better for everyone.”
So Oakland ridded themselves of two progressives through the recall process just to elect another progressive?
One that won’t be so easily recalled
There was a reason that Oakland voters got rid of those other two progressives. Do they really want to go down that road again?
One of the reasons the mayor was recalled was the FBI investigation, I doubt that will be repeat itself. BTW, it’s an election, she’s not being appointed or anointed.
Trump talked about S-hole countries. Regarding Oakland . . .
And I don’t say that lightly, before The Vid, Oakland was reforming, coming to life. I went there often, sometimes more than once a month.
Returning since The Vid, I was ‘assaulted’ on my first day back after years of lockdown, a car from a meth camp coming up behind me in broad daylight, coming into the bike lane, and slowly scraping my bicycle as it passed me, inches from my leg, then turning diagonally in front of me in the bike lane to block me. I hightailed backwards down the lanes and ditched down a few alleys and lost this insane beat-up car with blacked-out windows.
I had to return to Oakland three times and spend the entire day waiting for cops who never came to file a report and I had the license number for the car. They would only do it in person since they said what I described was a felony, but there was never a person to give the report to, and they wouldn’t take the report at a police station. Since I didn’t live in Oakland they had to meet me somewhere so I spent a lot of time at Starbucks, waiting. They said two days all the cops were a shooting and no one was available.
When I finally got a supervisor who would listen and met the cops for a report, they were great, and said if you ever see the car again call in. I biked 1/4 mile to the meth camp at Grand & Mandela and the car that assaulted me was sitting there. I called in, and it took 2-1/2 hours for someone at the police department to answer the phone. I reported the car. I went back twice over the next few weeks and the car was still there, one time with a guy at the car eyeing me scarily. I don’t think they ever followed up on this felony.
Is it any wonder *why* crime statistics are down while crime is skyrocketing? People give up even reporting crimes when they know the cops aren’t gonna do sh*t. And even when people like me refuse to not report a felony committed against them, the cops in Oakland don’t do sh*t. That is a City descending into the depths of Hades. I was in the east bay last weekend and had an opportunity come up to go to Oakland, and I thought about it and passed. Money not spent in Oakland, spent elsewhere. Spiral of death for a City that almost turned itself around until The Vid hit. So sad.