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OAKLAND – Former City Councilman Lauren Taylor took a very slim lead in early results in Oakland’s special mayoral election against former Democrats on Tuesday in a race spurred by a string of scandals that culminated in the city’s mayoral recalls in November.
The Northern California city-leading race was too close to call late Tuesday night. But Taylor’s powerful early shows are the latest plot twists in the race that Lee, a progressive icon who spent nearly 30 years representing East Bay in Congress after declaring her candidacy in January.
Auckland, a city of 436,000 with around 250,000 registered voters, uses ranked electoral elections, allowing voters to select multiple candidates through preference orders. It may take several days for the final results to be tallied and the winner is declared, but Taylor’s supporters have already been celebrating the early results at a campaign party in downtown Auckland.
Down the street from Taylor’s party, the night is still very young, so hundreds of Lee supporters remained bright while dancing to live bands at the ceremony, a downtown music venue. Auckland’s official colours, green and gold balloons, decorated the rooms, forming long lines for dozens of people to get plates of soul food.
Lee, wearing a dark green suit in a gold shirt, also hit a resilient tone during her speech at the party.
“We all know this will be a long week,” she said. “But we’re doing very well.”
The special election was triggered by the expulsion of Mayor Shentao, who was voted in November, amid a general sense that crime, homelessness and Auckland was in crisis.
The progressive Thao, elected in 2022, has been criticized for failing to actively deal with so-called Smash and Grab robbery and car thefts, or to demolish the city’s vast tent cities. She also faces accusations of beating the city’s finances, contributing to the disastrous budget shortfall this fiscal year, and almost certainly requires drastic cuts across the government sector.
Efforts to inaugurate Thao were already underway when FBI agents stormed her home in June as part of an investigation into a vast corruption scheme that included Thao’s boyfriend and father-son team, who run a company that provides recycling services in Auckland. The probe activates recalls and easily passed with over 60% of votes. Thao, her boyfriend Andre Jones, and California’s Waste Solutions, Andy and David Duon, were charged with federal bribery charges in January. All four defendants pleaded not guilty.
Thao’s expulsion, along with concerns over crime and the city’s financial crisis, promoted deep voter responsiveness by government leaders against perceived incompetence, said Dan Lindheim, a former city manager in Oakland who currently teaches at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkley.
“Coupled with this financial crisis, there was a perception that things were out of control,” Lindheim said, who supported Lee.
The election created an unexpected career opportunity for Lee, who left Washington in January after losing his Senate bid at the Primary last year. As Auckland suddenly needs a new mayor, a wide coalition of business groups, labor organizations and elected leaders called Lee last fall to run for a special election, spending it to save the city from collapse.
Since announcing the campaign in January, Lee has implemented a message of unity as a veteran politician with decades of experience building up experience in all interest groups. She touted the hundreds of millions of dollars she brought back to East Bay during her time in Congress, where she defended anti-war policies and promoted laws targeting racism, sexism, poverty and labour exploitation. These values arise from her roots as a Black Panther activist and as educational training at Mills College and University of California Berkeley.
She promised on the campaign trajectory to “make everyone’s lives better” in Auckland, fighting crime and encouraging an estimated 5,400 homeless people in Auckland to shelter and housing. She has pledged to hire more police officers, curb government spending and increase transparency into decisions at city hall.
Taylor and Lee were just two candidates in a crowded field of 10, but one dropped out of the race in February due to Lee’s campaign. However, the race was primarily seen as a competition between Lee and Taylor and Auckland’s competing vision.
Taylor effectively removed Lee’s benefits in recent weeks. This was largely dependent on directing her strengths towards her.
He often describes his hometown as “broken” and desperately needs a CEO with ground experience at city hall who can make tough decisions without fear of disappointing longtime political supporters. And at age 47, Taylor appealed to voters who were looking for young people and were looking to guide the city in a new direction.
“We’re a great place to go,” said Keally McBride, an Oakland resident and professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. “But when it comes to local governments, I hope things go well.”
He received financial support from technology and business leaders who raised tens of thousands of dollars to select Taylor through an independent spending committee supporting his candidacy.
Taylor represented parts of East Oakland for four years on the city council after a slight loss to Tao in the 2022 mayoral election. In that race, Taylor was on the lead for several days before a wave of mail-in voting pushed the vote in favor of Tao.
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