Oakland Mayoral Candidate: Rebecca Kaplan

Until Ken Houston formally announces his candidacy, Rebecca Kaplan is the next in line, alphabetically. Ms. Kaplan is currently the At-Large City Councilmember in Oakland. She first ran for that seat in 2000 as the Green Party candidate, narrowly losing to Henry Chang. She switched parties and won the seat in 2008. I supported her in 2008, donating to her campaign. In 2012, she was reelected, beating Ignacio de la Fuente, who has run for mayor himself a few times.

Ms. Kaplan's platform, summarized on her website, is "Safe neighborhoods, local jobs, and a fresh start for our city." It's a nice mantra, but when you click on the icons to see what they mean, they don't go anywhere. I understand that she just announced her candidacy, but she's been a candidate often enough, and governing long enough, that she should have some substance to her platform. Another issue I see is that Oakland doesn't really need a "fresh start" at this point. We're in the midst of a fresh start! There are hundreds of new businesses that have opened, new festivals that are immensely popular (First Friday/Art Murmur, Off the Grid) and the sense that Oakland is "the new Brooklyn", long enough for that to seem trite.

Ms. Kaplan's experience in the city council, and as the at-large member who represents the whole city, has given her many opportunities to demonstrate leadership, particularly in contrast to Mayor Jean Quan.  The fact that she can't muster a fresh campaign slogan that suggests how Oakland's newfound success could be stread, or even any platform ideas to support "public safety" and "local jobs" makes me worry that she got into this race because she heard poll numbers put her ahead of Quan and Libby Schaaf, which is pretty flattering.  I will need to see more from Rebecca Kaplan to support her this time around. I recommend Chip Johnson's June 9 column for more on her thin record.