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Quan Eyes Mayor's Office
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Claire Trageser
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Last Updated on November, 06 2007 at 02:05 PM
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Ron Dellums has yet to celebrate a year in office, but contenders are already showing interest in his job. City Councilwoman Jean Quan thinks she can be Oakland's first woman mayor.
The District 4 representative, who ran unopposed for re-election last June, is now hinting that she will consider a campaign next year. And she's not shy about handicapping her chances of winning. |
Ron Dellums has yet to celebrate a year in office, but contenders are already showing interest in his job. City Councilwoman Jean Quan thinks she can be Oakland's first woman mayor.
The District 4 representative, who ran unopposed for re-election last June, is now hinting that she will consider a campaign next year. And she's not shy about handicapping her chances of winning. “When the time comes in about a year, (I will) look at mayor because I’d like us to have a woman mayor,” she says. “I think that I’m enough in the center that I could get support from throughout the city.”
Dressed in a lawn-green sweater and matching stone necklace, and surrounded by elegant scrolls, hanging masks and posters for events like “VH1’s Save the Music,” Ms. Quan looks the part of a mayoral candidate. Speaking on a recent afternoon, her voice is low and her tone is even as she offers inoffensive opinions that seem perfectly rehearsed.
Ms. Quan's estimation of her chances notwithstanding, whether she actually has a shot to be elected depends on whether Mr. Dellums decides to run again, according to Larry Tramutola, a top political consultant based in Oakland.
"It's like running for class president in high school," he says. "Your chances look pretty good until the captain of the football team decides to run."
Mr. Tramutola says that if Mr. Dellums decides not to run, a crop of potential candidates, including State Senate President Don Perata, Oakland City Attorney John Russo, and other City Council members, may sprout up. There has also been talk around City Hall that developer Phil Tagami will run for mayor in 2010.
"If Dellums doesn't run again, the election will be wide open, and Jean will have as good a chance as anybody," he says. "The fact that she's talking about it is indicative that maybe Ron Dellums isn't doing as strong a job as people would like him to be (doing)."
Ms. Quan's mayoral ambitions don't seem to be related to how she feels about the present mayor. Or if they are, she isn't saying it. “I’m not one of the people who’s going to bad-mouth the mayor,” she says.
She says Mr. Dellums is “learning more about the city,” and she appreciates his strengths while giving him time to learn more about local government and administration, his two major weaknesses, according to Ms. Quan.
Ms. Quan, a registered Democrat, has a long list of issues she could push as mayor. She is anti-war, pro-union, and furious about President Bush's recent veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. She supports increased funding for public schools, the Universal Preschool Initiative, the Chabot Science Center, and library facilities, including a new Laurel Library and Dimond Branch expansion. In the past few weeks, she called a forum on domestic violence, voted for a measure to ban smoking in most public places, and proposed a City ordinance that would allow Oakland residents to tie their dogs on public property for 15 minutes. |
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OAKLAND
POLITICS
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