Oakland Could Beat SF to Having Out Mayor

Oakland voters could make history in November by electing the Bay Area's first out mayor to serve a full term, should lesbian at-large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan win the race as polling has suggested.

No other city in the region with an elected mayor, as opposed to having the position rotate amongst city council members, has had a person from its LGBT community win the seat and serve out a full four years.

The closest an out mayoral candidate came to winning their race was gay former Vallejo City Councilman Gary Cloutier, who at first appeared to have won the November 2007 election and went on to serve as mayor for seven days. But his opponent Osby Davis sought a recount, which found him to be the winner by three votes, and was sworn in as mayor that December.

In San Francisco voters have repeatedly rejected out mayoral candidates, although gay former Supervisor Tom Ammiano, now a state Assemblyman, came close to defeating then-Mayor Willie Brown in a dramatic write-in campaign during the 1999 mayoral race.

Now it is Kaplan who is riding a wave of frustration with her city's current mayor, Jean Quan, who could finally break through one of the remaining glass ceilings in local LGBT politics. She has garnered backing from the statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California, and the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund has made her race one of its top priorities this fall.

Polls have shown Kaplan with significant support among voters. One released last month by the nonprofit Jobs and Housing Coalition found Kaplan with 61 percent of the vote and Quan with 39 percent under the city's ranked-choice voting system. The poll of 400 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Oakland mayoral candidate Libby Schaaf. Photo: Jane Philomen Cleland

Wednesday the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce released a new poll conducted in early October that showed Kaplan would win the race with nearly 59 percent and City Councilwoman Libby Schaaf placing second with more than 41 percent under the instant-runoff voting process.

Quan landed in third place with 28.4 percent in the poll, which was based on the responses from 500 voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Four years ago Kaplan came in second place to Quan in the mayoral race. Although she had pledged not to mount a bid to oust Quan as mayor, it was widely expected that Kaplan would break that promise and run this year. In June Kaplan announced her decision to do so.

"I was waiting to see if she would pull it together," Kaplan told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent editorial board meeting. "I don't hate her. This is not about animus."

She was motivated to seek the mayoral office again, said Kaplan, due to the numerous calls of complaint from constituents about Quan's administration.

"As the at-large council member I am the person people are told to call when they have a problem at City Hall," said Kaplan, 44, who married her wife, Pamela Rosin, this summer. "People call me to complain the mayor was rude to them or her staff won't call them back."

Kaplan also criticized Quan's handling of LGBT issues during her first term, pointing to the mayor's not appropriating city funds toward Oakland's revived Pride festival and underfunding of programs for LGBT youth last summer.

"It has been really appalling to see all the straight people in Oakland city government that fancies themselves allies but don't do anything," said Kaplan. "It's been interesting to see even though Oakland has a large LGBT community it doesn't seem straight officials respond to that."

Should she be elected mayor, Kaplan pledged to make funding for Pride and LGBT youth programs part of her baseline budget. She also said she would appoint a member of her staff as an official liaison to the LGBT community.

"My presence will do some work to change the tone, but I wouldn't leave it at that," said Kaplan.

During her own editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. Quan dismissed Kaplan's attacks on her LGBT record, saying that, "Rebecca's truthfulness is something to be desired."

The mayor, who turns 65 next week, pointed out she has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Oakland Pride committee from corporate sponsors and started a breakfast event the morning of the LGBT celebration to bring in even more funds.

The lack of LGBT youth funding, said Quan, was due to poor evaluations of the programs that had received city funds. In the end, the funding dispute led to applications from better programs, she added.

"It is not that we are clueless, but we are doing more to improve," Quan said.

She also pointed to her requiring LGBT sensitivity training for police and her naming various LGBT Oaklanders to oversight bodies such as the city's planning and port commissions.

"I probably appointed more LGBT appointees to commissions and boards than any other mayor. It has been one of my priorities," said Quan. "At one point the planning commission was majority LGBT."

Quan told the B.A.R., which endorsed her re-election bid last week, that she believes she will split the city's LGBT vote with Kaplan. Early on she secured support from a host of LGBT officials and leaders and was able to block Kaplan from landing the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club's endorsement in the race.

And she remains confident as more voters pay attention to the race and see the progress Oakland has made in the last four years they will support her re-election bid.

"The recent polls show more people think we are going in the right direction. It is just not associated with me yet," said Quan. "I am not sure if that is because of the media or because I am an Asian woman. The people I talk to think the city is doing better. There is a little bit of optimism."

Yet Schaaf, 48, told the B.A.R. editorial board that Quan's days as mayor are numbered.

"The anyone but Jean campaign has already been won," said Schaaf, who received a big boost this month when Governor Jerry Brown, her former boss and Oakland's former mayor, endorsed her mayoral bid. "Now the challenge for me, if you look at the polls, I am the person most in striking distance to outpace Rebecca."

Compared to her council colleague, said Schaaf, "I am much more of a straight shooter. I have a backbone. I keep my word."

All of the polling so far in the race, said Schaaf, shows Oakland voters clamoring for change. And with a large pool of voters still undecided on whom to back for mayor - nearly a quarter of respondents in the latest poll - she said there is an opening for her to emerge the winner next month.

"It looks like the current mayor won't win, though don't undercount her as she is an excellent campaigner," said Schaaf. "Definitely, it looks like Rebecca's to lose. But not all of her affection is translating to the mayor's race. My challenge is I am not well known."