Auckland – On a recent Saturday in March, hundreds of people filled Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre to fill the typical party to honor longtime Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee.
Ella Gordon, the winner of the Auckland Youth Poet Award, recited a powerful poem about the magic of living in diverse East Bay City. Meanwhile, Destiny Muhammad, aka hood harpist and young dancers from the Queen’s Dance Company in Africa ignored the venue with the soulful grassroots energy that the town is admired for.
Lee, 78, left Washington, D.C. in January after losing his Senate bid for Democrats last year in November. This loss seemed like her muffled conclusion for almost 30 years in Congress. There, her anti-war position and support for civil rights made her a hero in Auckland’s hometown.
The March 8 event was not a retirement party, but he ran for Mayor of Oakland, the main fundraiser for Lee’s next venture.
With a fateful twist that could potentially reinvigorate Lee’s political career, Auckland realized that after voters in November remembered Mayor Shentao, he needed a new CEO. The exile highlighted the frustration of residents with brave street crime, vast tent cities and the general sense that the progressive Thao, elected in 2022, had no solution.
Clouding her exit even further: In January, federal officials announced that Thao was charged with bribery charges. A team of father and son who runs his boyfriend and a company that offers recycling services in Auckland, claiming a corruption scheme that includes cash payments and campaign support in exchange for a city contract. All four defendants pleaded not guilty.
In the decade leading up to the pandemic, Oakland emerged as a popular alternative to San Francisco, with youthful downtowns, more affordable housing and a high-energy nightlife. However, the city is struggling to recover from its Covid-era closure. A surge in property crimes and “smash and grab” robberies has led some well-known businesses to leave town. Between 2022 and 2024, the number of people living in cars, vehicles, or abandoned buildings on the streets increased by 10%. In 2023, the number of murders surpassed 100 for the fourth consecutive year.
So for an army of enthusiastic followers, when Lee announced in early January that she would run for mayor in the special election on April 15th, it was a deep relief.
“I’m always ready to fight for Auckland,” Lee said, announcing her bid.
Her campaign is endorsed by a broad coalition of elected officials, business groups, labor unions and faith leaders, and she is the right woman for now and requires the beliefs and experience necessary to unite the residents.
“We need her, she doesn’t need us,” interim mayor Kevin Jenkins told the crowd at an event in March.
“I’m always ready to fight for Oakland,” former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee said she has announced that she is running for mayor.
(Lauren Elliott/Era)
Lee’s entrance into the race helped thin out what had been a crowded field for candidates considering running. Many predictions Lee will have an easy path to victory. Why are you getting in the way of her?
But punched that mindset was Lauren Taylor, a moderate Democrat who represented parts of East Oakland for four years on the city council after a narrow defeat to Tao in the 2022 mayoral election. A total of nine candidates remain in the race, but only Taylor appeared as Lee’s terrifying challenger.
Taylor, a 47-year-old business management consultant with a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, has gathered extensive support from the business community and high-tech entrepreneurs to bring public safety and excellent governance back to Auckland.
“We have a lot of things that need to be fixed and that need to be fixed right away,” Taylor said in a recent discussion.
Their candidates present voters with provocative choices. Should Auckland choose an experienced civil servant who has delivered to the district for decades in the country’s capital? Or a crude politician in 31 years junior year 31 who is immersed in local issues and knows how the city hall works?
It is the slogans that each person has chosen to highlight their differences. Lee promotes herself as someone who can “unify” Auckland. Taylor says his goal is to “fix” what’s broken.
When Lee declared her candidacy, Taylor thought he had two options.
The first was to listen to many people who tried to persuade him to stand up, Taylor said in a February interview:
The second was to stay in the race against the deniers. “It’s okay, if she’s there, that’s tough,” he said of his thoughts. “But if she’s there, what would really be the best for Auckland?”
Taylor and Lee pledge not only to help an estimated 5,400 homeless people in Auckland find shelters and housing, but also to make combat crime a priority. They pledged to curb government spending in the face of a fiscal deficit. And they promoted policies to increase transparency as a way to rebuild public trust.
However, Taylor argues there is a difference that separates the two. One comes from a variety of generations. Though both are Democrats, Taylor describes himself as being more gentle and is not shy from his pro-enforcement stance. The city says it will need to hire more than 100 more police officers.
He would often say that Lee was a great member of Congress, but he is one of the 435 members of the House. In contrast, he said he knows the fuss of being a local official for a long throw. He is targeting Lee’s refusal to publicly say whether he plans to run for reelection in 2026.
“The question you need to ask is okay, do you want a 78-year-old career politician who doesn’t show history of making difficult and difficult decisions?” he said. “Or do you need a 47-year-old political outsider who is on the ground, working at city hall, working for multiple stakeholder groups, demonstrating his ability to solve these difficult problems and committing to being here for more than 20 months?”
Lee spoke this month about her decision to run for reelection, and whether she thinks she has done enough work. Taylor’s criticism infuriated her supporters who say he downplayed one of the Auckland heroes.
“There’s no real reason, but our councillors are under attack while doing something sacrificial,” City Councilman Carol Fife said at an event in March. “This is Barbara Lee. Please pay tribute to her name.”
“I’ve seen her do what most politicians can,” Rep. Lattefa Simon, a Democrat who was elected to Lee’s former seat in November, added in a recent phone interview from Washington. “Barbara can pick up the phone, make a call and get through to everyone.”
Simon pointed out that the hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising Lee brought to the district from Washington, and that he was willing to work across the aisle with the Republican Party and connect labor and business to negotiate. She supports policies targeting racism, sexism, poverty and labor exploitation, and defends the Black Panther activist experience and the values that arose from her education training at Mills College and Berkeley, California.
“Auckland is in danger,” Simon said. “This is not an employment training opportunity. Things need to be shaped by other lawmakers, people with local, state, local, national and international ties with the public and private sector.”
Are Lee’s supporters (someone who extends to influential interest groups) worried about Taylor?
“I was caught up in this public service role, played it safely and never half-committed to my city,” he said. “I think that’s one of the problems we have. It’s not the best for the constituents they serve, and there are too many people who are considering their political careers.”
Taylor’s audacity respects him among Aucklanders who want to see a more positive approach to urban issues.
“He’s practical about delivering results, not just ‘beasts,'” said former city council member Patricia Carnigan. “He’s already soaked up in these issues. He knows what the facts are. He knows all the players. It’s crunch time.”
“It’s a very liberal city, and that’s good, but sometimes it can cause people to lose sight of common sense,” said Bob Cross, one of the roughly 20 people who spent the recent Sunday door knock on Taylor. “Barbara Lee has done a good job in Washington, but she wasn’t part of the city government.”
Taylor has surprised his skeptics after gaining momentum over the past few weeks. In early March, he reported a small funding lead compared to Lee. In the middle of the month, his campaign released a poll showing that he was on track to win 41% of the first-place votes, compared to Lee’s 45%. (Auckland utilizes a rank selection voting system that allows voters to select multiple candidates by prioritization.)
Still, running against a woman who has won more than a dozen races is not easy. In the final parliamentary campaign of 2022, Lee won by more than 90% of the vote.
On a Sunday in mid-March, Taylor ran through the queues of cozy East Auckland homes and worked on a door knock mission to cheer up the votes. He stopped and introduced himself to an older man walking his dog.
The man listened before politely telling Taylor that he was going to vote for Lee.
“I’ve been voting for her for years,” he said. Taylor nodded and chuckled patiently. “I voted for Barbara Lee too,” he replied. But what Auckland needs right now is someone with a track record of local issues, he explained.
“You’re on my list. Let’s say you’re in the top two,” replied the man. “Obviously, you’re not a bad choice.”
“I did not want to safely fulfill this public service role and make half a commitment to my city,” Lauren Taylor said of his decision to run for Mayor of Oakland.
(Yaronda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle)
The same was true in the house beneath the street with the “Barbaraly” sign in the garden. Taylor still thought it was worth the visit.
The woman who opened the door seemed really excited to see Taylor. “Lauren, oh my goodness!” she said. She too listened before Taylor confronted his pitch and put out her verdict: “Barbara is my girl… I will cherish her.”
“You know, I respect you, Lauren,” she added. He thanked her and headed down the driveway.
“That’s the natural default. These are the headwinds we’re facing,” Taylor said.
But it wasn’t all a rejection. A woman screamed at Taylor from across the street, running down her driveway to talk to him, sharing that she and her husband, a firefighter, were going to vote for him. In another house, the man said Taylor could expect him to vote.
In many ways, Lee’s March 8 campaign event nodded to Taylor’s unexpected power. She was dressed in a speech celebrating Lee’s achievements. Several supporters have called for Taylor to follow her.
“We need to attack and fight back on her,” interim mayor Jenkins said with applause.
Lee concludes the ceremony and sticks to her united message. “We have a difference of opinion. We come together for one reason. It’s to make life better for everyone, and I mean everyone.”
Her background, her time in Washington, even her age, she is not bothered.
“Criticism is fine in the campaign,” she told The Times. “But trust me, I know this city very well. I live here. I live here and delivered for this city.”
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