Ralph Cooke: Oakland City Attorney should remain an elected position
“The City Attorney is to be elected by the people. This is a guarantee that the legal head of government will be able to fearlessly protect interests of all San...
Congratulations, new Oakland Mayor Jean Quan
Yeah, I don’t actually have anything ready to say about this at the moment. I mean, obviously, I’m disappointed in how this election turned out. And...
Latest Oakland Elections Results
UPDATE: Jean Quan won. More details when I am back at a computer. So, there were no new results posted today, and I don’t know when there will be. I mean,...
Some thoughts on civility in public discourse
Politics, and particularly elections, can be pretty nasty business. People get so emotional about them, and when we are so caught up in these emotions, we have a...
Thank you to all campaign volunteers
So. The election results, for the most part, are in. National losses are, of course, terribly disappointing, but it’s a relief that sanity prevailed in California...
UPDATED: Oakland election results
MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: I never got around to updating this post with those Friday afternoon numbers, but you can check them out here if you like. We’re still...
Happy Election Day!
Don’t you guys just love election day? I love election day. I have always found it just so thrilling. If you still have questions about the various ballot...
Why I’m voting Yes on Measure BB
A couple of months ago, I had a conversation about Measure BB with a local good government advocate who I have a great deal of respect for. At that time, I was pretty...
Why I’m voting for Victoria Kolakowski for Superior Court Judge
Victoria Kolakowski, who is running for Superior Court Judge, has been endorsed by a slew of elected officials, democratic clubs, local organizations, and newspapers....
Dick Spees urges you to vote for Libby Schaaf for City Council
I told you guys last week why I support Libby Schaaf for Oakland City Council District 4. And while I probably used more words than I needed to, what I was trying...
Why I am voting Don Perata for Mayor of Oakland
So, I told you guys yesterday why I am not voting for Jean Quan or Rebecca Kaplan for Mayor. Today, I’m going to tell you why I am proud to be voting for Don...
Why I am not voting for Rebecca Kaplan for Mayor
So. Like I said in my post about why I can’t vote for Jean Quan, it took me a long time to come to a decision about who I was going to support for Mayor. And...












