Former US representative Ron Dellums has announced his candidacy for the Oakland mayoral position at a press conference held at Laney College at noon today. He will be running against the previously mentioned city council president Ignacio De La Fuente, councilmember Nancy Nadel, school board members Greg Hodge and Dan Siegel, Alameda County treasurer Donald White, and Glynn Washington, whose Council for Responsible Public Investment is a sort of CALPERS investment watchdog. Now that the slate has been set, we should soon see what their official public positions are on the Coliseum North project, and on a ballpark in general.
The mayoral election is scheduled for June 2006.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
so what does this mean for our a's. how does dellums compare to brown? to de la fuente?
Anyone think this enhances Ron Washington's chances of becoming manager? It would send a strong message to the black community, some of whom vote, most of whom couldn't care less about the A's. (It might even get Joe Morgan to stop saying bad things about us......maybe not)
Now of course, Billy Beane would NEVER use such a criteria to pick a manager, particularly over his buddy Bob Geren. But Washington is going to be hired by someone, and if the A's manager is merely a puppet who'll be gone in three years anyway, why not score some political points to get us a ballpark?
If we can get Dellums on our side, I still think his congressional experience helps us a lot.
It's a little more complicated than simply knowing Dellums's position on the ballpark matter. As I've said elsewhere, my worry about Dellums is that any effort for a ballpark will take a back seat to other more pressing matters, such as existing development projects, the homeless problem, OUSD, and Dellums's own designs on universal health care. It's unclear how a ballpark fits in, and it will take some convincing for him to buy into the idea.
Dellums is a big vision guy, while IDLF is more of a pound-the-pavement guy. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out. But even if Dellums wins the job, IDLF will still have two years left on his City Council term, which sets up some potential conflict especially if the race turns ugly. Don't discount that IDLF is also part of Don Perata's extended family, so IDLF will have Perata's backing going into the election.
I would think that hiring Wash wouldn't have an effect. Not because hiring Wash isn't a noble idea - because it is, and he's proven himself to boot - but the turnover in the A's managerial position is high. Wash could find himself out of a job before a ballpark project is approved, let alone ground broken. How would it look if Wash were fired or he resigned before all of the details were ironed out? It's not something to rely upon.
Post a Comment