How Pete's Voting!

	A	B	C	D
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2	Vote By April 15th!	Issue/Candidate	Pete's Recommendation	Rationale
3	City of Oakland	Mayor	Barbara Lee!	If you had a stellar career, a guaranteed gold plated reputation and could ride off into the sunset after decades of public service, would you sign up to fight billionaires for a hard job with little glory? If you're Barbara Lee, you would. But her courage and commitment to answer the call for Oakland Mayor is not the only reason to vote for her. Lee is coming in with a real plan around getting serious about safety, supporting diversion programs and services, not just funneling money into the police, as well as a comprehensive housing policy that values keeping people in their homes and deeply affordable housing. But Lee is going further than just good policy that serves people, not greedy corporations- she has witnessed how Oakland's disjointed governance structure has put a stranglehold on accountable, transparent management of the city, and she's got a plan to make the city work. I have great hope for Lee coming in, and also know we've got to hold her to being a bridge to the future and cultivating the next generation of leadership. As for the other options? Even if Loren Taylor was ethical and honest (hint, he's not), his prescriptions for the city- more corporate giveaways, drastic cuts to services, hand the keys to developers, and oh yeah, supercharge the police and dismantle accountability- are the wrong direction for the Town. But let's add in Taylor's shenanigans: enlisting the help of explicit fascist/racist provocateurs, playing footsie with Piedmont billionaires to fund undemocratic recalls, and just in the last few weeks, buying ads with lying headlines about his opponents, falsely using non-profits brands as endorsements without their knowledge, and when called out on it, just being a dick about it. Loren Taylor policies would be bad for Oakland- and his practices would be even worse. This is a pivotal moment y'all- knock, call, and tell everyone you know: Vote for Barbara Lee for Mayor!
4		City Council District 2	Kara Murray-Badal!!	With Nikki Fortunato Bas bringing her brilliance and fierceness to the county board of supervisors, district 2 is an open seat, and a pivotal one for Oakland's next chapter. And thankfully, Kara Murray-Badal is here to answer the call. Kara was born and raised in the district, and it's hard to imagine a resume more fitting for this job, having worked with cities around the country on developing and evaluating true public safety programs, creating housing strategies that get folks housed and keep folks housed, and oh yeah, managing budgets. Those things sound familiar to what Oakland needs? She's got an impressive list of endorsements (including city workers, Oakland Rising Action, Nikki, and a show of force from unions throwing substantial resources behind her campaign), but best of all though, Kara comes with impeccable values and accountability to the people of Oakland. Charlene Wang is a capable public servant having worked at the federal level, but Kara's experience and values outshine her by leaps and bounds, and Charlene has sadly been pushing policing as the only response to safety in Oakland. Worse, she's been snakebit by the cynical caucus in Town politics. Empower Oakland, the Peidmont millionaire, crypto, corporate developer and murderous PG&E front group that is doing it's best to dismantle Oakland and sell it off to corporations, is spending $200,000 to get her elected- which is a bad sign. You can tell a lot by who your friends are. Vote for Kara!
5		Measure A	Yes	Gotta be real folks- the budget situation in the town is no joke (thanks, in large part, to the legacy of Mayor Libby Schaaf's years of bad math- great qualifications for her campaign to be State Treasurer in 2026!). This small increase in the sales tax will help, bringing Oakland taxes up to 10.75 percent, the same level of San Leandro, Hayward, and a few others. I'm not a big fan of sales taxes, as they end up impacting low-income folks the most, but this is desperately needed and worth passing now. Vote yes.
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