Oakland residents voted last April for a new mayor. In just a few months, they’ll get to do it all over again. But will Barbara Lee, who won the special election handily, be in the running?

That question has loomed large in recent days as Oakland politicians filed their annual financial disclosures, revealing how much money they’ve raised to run in November. 

Lee’s disclosure seems to indicate she’s going to run for a full term.

The mayor raised $31,863 in the second half of 2025, according to a report filed with the city on Monday. She spent just under $6,000, mostly on routine office and professional services. It’s a small amount compared to her total haul in 2025 for the special election — $580,000 — but it’s far more than any of the possible challengers already in the race have raised.

In fact, the only person officially in the mayor’s race who reported raising money was Mindy Pechenuk, a Republican follower of Donald Trump. Pechenuk raised $7,765 last year and spent $5,364.

We were unable to reach Lee’s campaign to discuss her plans for the 2026 election. 

Lee actually raised far more money last year for her officeholder account, which can foot the bill for things unrelated to the election. Her officeholder account took in $100,000 in 2025, which is the maximum she was allowed to raise under city rules. 

Lee spent $66,220 of these officeholder funds. Much of which went to charities, including $5,000 each to the Alameda County Food Bank and the Public Education Fund. She also gave $1,500 each to the Street Level Health Project, Mary Barber Ministries, East Oakland Senior Center, Hope Collaborative, Dream Youth Clinic, Wood Street Commons, Telegraph Community Ministry Center, and 2 Star Market.  

The mayor also paid $5,000 to Change Consulting for media outreach. Lee owes roughly $21,000 to Madera Group for fundraising services.

Labor unions are also pouring money into a committee that aims to gin up support for a parcel tax measure that could help balance the city budget and avert cuts. The committee “Oaklanders for a Safe, Clean & Healthy City” raised $450,000 last year, according to its latest disclosure. 

Most of this money came from SEIU Local 1021 ($200,000), IAFF Local 55, Oakland’s fire union ($150,000), and IFPTE Local 21 ($50,000). PG&E has also donated $50,000 to the cause. Last month, SEIU gave an additional $225,000 to this committee.

The committee spent $440,000 last year, mainly on petition signature-gathering companies.

Two councilmembers running unopposed have big campaign war chests

A bunch of other Oakland offices are up for grabs in November, including three council seats, city auditor, and three school board seats.

The incumbent districts 2, 4, and 6 councilmembers are all currently running unopposed.   

District 6 Councilmember Kevin Jenkins reported raising $57,600 last year. He spent just under $3,000, leaving him with $54,670. 

The council president also raised $17,825 last year in his officeholder account. Jenkins and two other councilmembers, Janani Ramachandran and Ken Houston, pushed the council to adopt legislation last year that increased the contribution cap for council officeholder accounts from $25,000 to $75,000.

Jenkins spent over $10,000, leaving him with a cash balance of $7,647 and a little over $8,000 in debts. According to his disclosure, Jenkins spent several thousand dollars at Scott’s Seafood. These expenses included holiday celebrations for community volunteers; meetings about district, policy, and legislative matters; meals with stakeholders related to city business; and a “business meeting with stakeholders to discuss Oakland Coliseum development and related policy considerations.” 

Councilmember Janani Ramachandran reported raising $46,184 last year for her reelection committee. She spent virtually none of it, leaving her with a cash balance of just over $61,000.

Ramachandran’s officeholder account was less active. In 2025, she reported raising $9,845. She ended the year with a cash balance of more than $13,000.

Councilmember Charlene Wang was elected last April to serve the remainder of Nikki Fortunato Bas’ term. (Bas now sits on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.) Wang’s reelection committee raised $8,105 last year and spent only a small amount on office expenses.

Wang’s officeholder account, which she used last year in the lead up to the special election, raised over $104,000 and spent roughly $119,000. That committee currently holds $4,900 in cash. Wang has used that account to pay wages to a couple campaign workers.

Real estate and crypto money funding major Oakland political group

One group that has been very active in recent elections by spending huge amounts of money on independent expenditures — advertising and other things that aren’t coordinated with any candidates — is the political action committee Revitalize Oakland. According to its disclosures, Revitalize raised $690,000 in 2025.

The group’s top contributor last year was Holland Residential California, a real estate developer and landlord with some large properties in downtown Oakland. Holland provided the committee with $235,000. 

Piedmont resident and San Francisco-based hedge fund partner Philip Dreyfus kicked in $160,000. Dreyfuss is best known for bankrolling the recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. 

Revitalize also received two big contributions last year from individuals in the cryptocurrency space: $100,000 from Jesse Pollak, an executive at Coinbase, and $100,000 from Konstantin Richter, CEO of the company Blockdaemon. 

Revitalize also received contributions from Ryan Graciano, the co-founder of Credit Karma ($50,000), PG&E ($25,000, and investor Ilya Sukhar ($20,000).

Well over one-third of Revitalize’s expenditures last year, roughly $267,000, went toward supporting Loren Taylor’s mayoral campaign. The group also gave $22,500 to the Black Action Alliance, a new organization that put on a mayoral debate in 2025, and which recently hosted a gubernatorial debate. Taylor is currently the interim CEO of the Black Action Alliance.

Revitalize also gave $25,000 to Empower Oakland, the advocacy group founded by Taylor in 2023. Empower endorsed candidates in the 2025 election. And the group spent tens of thousands of dollars paying off the debts of two committees that supported the Thao recall.

According to its disclosures, Revitalize paid nearly $19,000 to a firm called VR Research Inc. for polling and survey research. In the lead-up to last year’s election, VR Research produced an opposition research paper about Barbara Lee. The political activist Seneca Scott shared the report with members of the media ahead of the election.

In the second half of 2025, Revitalize donated money to Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation ($50,000), Urban Compassion Project ($50,000), 100 Black Men of the Bay Area ($35,000), the Lake Merritt Conservancy ($31,794), Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School ($30,000), and Youth Alive ($30,000).

Pamela Price has some support for her bid to retake the DA’s office

Alameda County voters recalled District Attorney Pamela Price by a wide margin in November 2024, cutting short her term. But last year Price made it clear that she intends to reclaim her former seat.

Price raised $26,307 last year and gave her political committee a $7,500 loan. She has spent roughly $7,800, leaving her with $25,970 in cash on hand. Some of her notable contributors include civil rights attorney John Burris and former privacy advisory commissioner Brian Hofer.  

However, Price’s fundraising has a long way to go to compete with the woman who was appointed DA last year by the Board of Supervisors. Ursula Jones Dickson has made it clear she’s running for a full term as DA this year, and according to her financial disclosure, she raised over $423,000 last year.

Notable Jones Dickson supporters include two former Alameda County DA’s: Thomas Orloff ($20,000) and Nancy O’Malley ($5,000). Also in her camp are the Alameda County Prosecutors Association ($10,000), the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council POWER PAC ($10,000), real estate agent Ronald Nahas ($6,000), and Supervisor David Haubert’s officeholder committee ($2,500). Dickson has also picked up smaller contributions from the mayors of Piedmont, Alameda, and Newark.

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