Yesterday, I checked out Capitol Weekly, as I do every Thursday and was excited to see that one of their weekly features focused on the Oakland mayor’s race. Well, I didn’t stay excited for too long. In “Experts Expound,” they asked a bunch of Sacramento “experts”:
“Don Perata is running for mayor of Oakland — a job he’s always wanted. Can he beat Ron Dellums? Why or why not?”
As any Oaklander would know, this is an absurd question to ask. Dellums isn’t running! Perata made this clear in his media interviews this week. And if Dellums ran again, Perata would crush him – it would be embarrassing.
After getting over the fact that this question was basically pointless, I browsed through the answers, some of which were pretty funny:
He can win. He’ll make the voters an offer they can’t refuse.
He will have all of those FBI agents following him when he walks precincts. People in Oakland will like this. It is his Posse. Perata wins.
Oakland Punchline – Ron Dellums is soooo bad that even Don Perata can beat him.
And then there was this answer, which was even more out of touch with Oakland politics than the initial question:
It will be close. Dellums has the same name I’d and an equal number of supporters.
Really? Has this person ever picked up a local paper or talked to anyone who lives in Oakland? Or maybe the person who said this has been out of the country for the past two years and missed Dellums’s descent.
Maybe Capitol Weekly and it’s Sacramento “experts” should stick to what they know, state politics, and stay out of Oakland politics. Either that, or they should consult some Oaklanders next time.
Living in the O 
Wow. That’s amazing.
I lol’ed
Clearly someone has no clue. But I must admit that I had a nice giggle over the FBI being Perata’s posse!
Finally, I found a blog about O-town.
Anyway about the article. Anyone will be better than Dellums. I am still trying to figure out what exactly did he do for Oakland while being the mayor besides bring shame.
I am sorry, but this will sound racist. Mayor Dellum only brought shame to the black community. He has done nothing (that I have seen) to say that Oakland was better off with a black mayor or with Dellum himself. When Dellum became mayor I was missing Jerry Brown.
Glad you found me! You might want to check out some of the other Oakland blogs I link to, as all of them are worth reading.
And I completely agree that just about anybody will be an improvement over Dellums
I would take it a step further and say all three of Oakland’s African American Mayors have been embarrassing. Lionel Wilson enriched his cronies, Elihu was a younger version of Dellums, out of touch and using the Mayor’s office to get his wife a sweet job and now Dellums.
Someone has to step up and lead and I can’t believe Perata is the best available. Isn’t he from Alameda? Would he have to move to Oakland to run?
At least Jerry Brown had been living in Oakland prior to becoming Mayor,
Just curious – who do you think is the best available?