{"id":449349,"date":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/449349\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:02:14","slug":"what-to-expect-when-you-vote-in-oakland-starting-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/449349\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect when you vote in Oakland, starting in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an edited transcript of Oaklandside 510<\/a>. You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts. <\/p>\n

Starting in October, Oakland voters will decide a mayor\u2019s race<\/a>, three City Council seats, three competitive school board seats, and several Oakland and regional ballot measures.<\/p>\n

To help make sense of all of it, and to explain how we\u2019re planning to cover it between now and Nov. 3, I\u2019m joined by two of our editors: Darwin BondGraham, our news editor, who edits our City Hall, housing, and public safety reporters, and Esther Kaplan, our deputy editor, who edits our education, transportation, and arts coverage. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Tasneem Raja, editor-in-chief, The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start at the top. Who\u2019s running for mayor?<\/p>\n

Darwin: Mayor Barbara Lee is running for a full four-year term. She won a special election last year to fill out the two years left in Mayor Sheng Thao\u2019s term after Thao was recalled. Now Lee is asking voters to keep her in the mayor\u2019s seat for four more years.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s got three challengers<\/a> who qualified for the ballot. Brenda Grisham<\/a>, an East Oakland business owner and public safety advocate who led the successful recall campaign against former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. <\/p>\n

Mindy Pechenuk<\/a>, an educator and activist who\u2019s run unsuccessfully for office in Oakland before. <\/p>\n

And Julius Robinson, who describes himself as a community investment executive.<\/p>\n

Compared to past years, is this a crowded field?<\/p>\n

Darwin: Actually, no. It\u2019s a smaller field than in recent elections. In the 2025 special election, 10 people ran for mayor. Ten also ran in 2022. Our newsroom\u2019s reporting on the candidate list points to Barbara Lee running as the incumbent for a full term as one likely reason there are only four on the ballot this year.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll get into Barbara Lee\u2019s time as mayor so far, and her reelection campaign, in more depth on this podcast soon. For now, what about City Council races?<\/p>\n

Darwin: Three council seats are up: Districts 2, 4, and 6.<\/p>\n

In District 2, the incumbent is Charlene Wang<\/a>, who was elected in 2025. She\u2019s facing a challenge from Democratic Socialist community organizer Nate Adams.<\/p>\n

The District 6 seat is currently occupied by council president Kevin Jenkins<\/a>. He\u2019s being challenged by Nancy Sidebotham<\/a>, a longtime Oakland resident, tax specialist, and neighborhood advocate who\u2019s run for various seats before.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s District 4, where the incumbent, Janani Ramachandran<\/a>, is running unopposed. So that race, at least, is settled.<\/p>\n

Like the mayor\u2019s race, this year is different in that slightly fewer people are running for council. But it\u2019s like past years in other ways. In 2022, Kevin Jenkins faced three opponents in the D6 race, and one of them was Nancy Sidebotham. So that\u2019s kind of a rematch.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a City Auditor race, but incumbent Michael Houston<\/a> is running unopposed.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk ballot measures. Walk us through what\u2019s going to be on the ballot beyond the candidates.<\/p>\n

Darwin: There are two Oakland-specific measures our reporters have been tracking closely, plus a regional transit measure.<\/p>\n

The first is the \u201cstrong mayor\u201d charter reform<\/a> measure. This is the big one. Right now, Oakland has a hybrid form of government that\u2019s neither a strong-mayor system, like what San Francisco has, nor a council-manager system, like most cities in California. The way power is divided right now can lead to confusion about who\u2019s really in charge.<\/p>\n

Barbara Lee cast<\/a> a rare tie-breaking vote in June to put a measure on the ballot that would restructure the government more like a strong-mayor form. It would give the mayor veto power over legislation and the budget, and more control over day-to-day administration.<\/p>\n

That was a really interesting vote.<\/p>\n

Darwin: Right, the council was tied 4 to 4, and Lee doesn\u2019t often step in to break ties like that, because she\u2019s said it can create an appearance of division between her office and the council. But she said the current system makes it \u201cimpossible for residents to know who\u2019s responsible when things go wrong,\u201d so she voted yes.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll certainly unpack that more in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

What else is on the ballot?<\/p>\n

Darwin: There\u2019s a foreclosure tax measure<\/a>. Currently, if you sell property in Oakland, you pay a tax when the property changes hands. But that doesn\u2019t currently apply to foreclosed properties. This measure would end that carveout.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Charlene Wang authored it, and the council passed it onto the ballot almost unanimously. The city estimates it could bring in $4 million to $13 million a year, depending on market conditions.<\/p>\n

One important caveat: it wouldn\u2019t apply to smaller banks and homeowners who are themselves being foreclosed on.<\/p>\n

It looked like Oakland voters were going to get to vote on a minimum wage ballot measure, but now that\u2019s not happening?<\/p>\n

Darwin: Right. A coalition called Living Wage For All submitted signatures to put a $30-an-hour minimum wage on the ballot for unincorporated parts of the county. It wouldn\u2019t affect Oakland\u2019s minimum wage, since Oakland sets its own.<\/p>\n

The reason it won\u2019t be on the ballot after all is that some of the county supervisors \u2014 David Haubert, Nate Miley, and Lena Tam \u2014 were skeptical<\/a> and had a lot of questions. So they invoked a clause in the elections code that allows them to briefly hit pause and ask for a study. That delay means it won\u2019t be on the November ballot; it\u2019ll appear in a future election.<\/p>\n

Esther, let\u2019s turn to you, first on the last of the ballot measures \u2014 one you\u2019ve been following closely since you edit our transit coverage.<\/p>\n

Esther: Right, it\u2019s called Connect Bay Area<\/a>, a sales tax measure covering Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, meant to bail out BART, AC Transit, and Muni, all of which will have to undertake deep service cuts or even close stations or lines without new funding.<\/p>\n

It qualified for the ballot this summer after organizers turned in well over the required number of signatures. It would add a half cent to the sales tax here in Oakland.<\/p>\n

Is that one expected to pass?<\/p>\n

Esther: It\u2019s genuinely uncertain. Most other Bay Area tax measures failed at the ballot in June \u2014 including Oakland\u2019s Measure E \u2014 which has some observers wondering if voters are just tired of being asked to pay more without seeing noticeable results.<\/p>\n

But as our transit reporter Jose Fermoso has reported<\/a>, the only transit-specific tax measure on that June ballot, in Marin County, was an exception. It passed easily with 70% of the vote. And the regional transit measure hasn\u2019t drawn the kind of organized, funded opposition that sank, for example, Measure E here in Oakland or the CEO tax in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening with the school board?<\/p>\n

Esther: This might actually be the most competitive set of local races this year. Three OUSD board seats are up \u2014 Districts 2, 4, and 6 \u2014 and none of them are uncontested. Also of note: in every single race, there\u2019s a current OUSD parent running for the first time<\/a>. Districts 4 and 6 each have three candidates facing off.<\/p>\n

Talk to us about why that matters.<\/p>\n

Esther: In recent years, as our education reporter Ashley McBride has written<\/a>, the board has only had a single parent with kids currently in Oakland schools on the board \u2014 and that affects the conversations that take place.<\/p>\n

Right now, for example, there\u2019s only one board member who\u2019s an active OUSD parent: Rachel Latta, who represents District 1. She isn\u2019t up for reelection this year. Other current board members either don\u2019t have kids in the district anymore, or have kids who haven\u2019t started school yet.<\/p>\n

So what changed this year?<\/p>\n

Esther: A few things converged. OUSD is heading into this fall with real financial pressure<\/a>. The district is confronting a budget gap, restarting its search for a permanent superintendent, and trying to avoid going back into state receivership, which it only exited last year.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there\u2019s been a real uptick in parent organizing \u2014 new parent engagement groups, a newsletter dissecting board meetings, and this year, for the first time, an independent expenditure committee formed specifically to support parent-candidates in two of these races.<\/p>\n

Walk us through the actual school board races.<\/p>\n

Esther: In District 2, in central Oakland, incumbent board president Jennifer Brouhard<\/a> \u2014 an ally of Superintendent Denise Saddler\u2019s and a retired special education teacher whose kids are OUSD graduates \u2014 is being challenged by Arielle Fleisher, a Crocker Highlands parent and tech worker who has been running on fixing the district\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

In District 4, in the Oakland Hills, extending down into Dimond and Laurel, incumbent Mike Hutchinson<\/a> \u2014 a former afterschool teacher and firebrand on the board \u2014 faces two challengers: Kathryn Camp, a Glenview Elementary School parent, and Sylvia Williams, a longtime adult bilingual teacher and special education aide in the district.<\/p>\n

And in District 6, which covers a chunk of East Oakland, incumbent Valarie Bachelor, a former labor organizer who is the board\u2019s sitting vice president, is being challenged by charter school teacher Alexandra Williams and by LeAna Powell, an OUSD elementary school parent and PTA activist who\u2019s maybe best known for filing<\/a> the ethics complaint that led to the investigation of former Mayor Sheng Thao.<\/p>\n

I know from Ashley\u2019s reporting that low compensation for school board members is one reason parents haven\u2019t historically run.<\/p>\n

Esther: It is. Board pay went up this year, to $3,000 a month, up from around $900 previously. That\u2019s the result of a state law that raised compensation limits for school boards across California.<\/p>\n

But the parent activists Ashley\u2019s spoken to say other obstacles are a bigger deal. Many worry about engaging with a board known for conflict and acrimony, or about entering the public eye and becoming the target of parent frustrations. Some also feel like they\u2019ve witnessed too many years of leadership failures by the board and can\u2019t imagine one person could make a difference.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the wave of parent candidates feels like a note of optimism.<\/p>\n

Okay, so that\u2019s the landscape. Now let\u2019s talk about how we\u2019re actually planning to cover all of this between now and Nov. 3. Darwin, what\u2019s the approach on your end?<\/p>\n

Darwin: Our goal isn\u2019t just to write \u201cmeet the candidate\u201d profiles. For each major race, Eli and Natalie are working on a feature that finds the real angle in that specific contest \u2014 what\u2019s actually driving it, not just who\u2019s running.<\/p>\n

For the mayor\u2019s race, for instance, we\u2019re looking at whether Barbara Lee can deliver on a second term given what she\u2019s been attacked on, and how a challenger like Brenda Grisham \u2014 who\u2019s shown she can unseat an incumbent before \u2014 might make her case.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also doing district-level stories for each council race that start from what residents themselves say are the top issues, not what we assume they care about. And we\u2019ve got ballot measure explainers in the works for the measures we just walked through. Expect clear, short pieces on what each one would actually do, who\u2019s for it, who\u2019s against it, and where the money\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n

And Esther, on the school board side?<\/p>\n

Esther: Ashley\u2019s got one story on the rise of parent candidates already out, which I highly recommend, and she\u2019s working on individual stories on each of the three board races, where we\u2019ll drill in on how each candidate is looking at OUSD\u2019s budget sustainability, whether they\u2019re open to school closures, and what their vision is for strengthening student achievement.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also looking to do a story on youth voters. Oakland is one of the places where 16- and 17-year-olds can actually vote in school board elections.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ve got an Oaklandside candidate forum tentatively planned for late September, where we\u2019ll break each of the district races into separate rooms to allow for high levels of dialogue and engagement. Look out for a post soon with information on how to attend. We\u2019re also planning to record the forum for the podcast.<\/p>\n

Any big overarching questions hanging over this whole election that listeners should keep an ear out for?<\/p>\n

Darwin: One we\u2019re chewing on: why aren\u2019t most of these council races more competitive this year? District 4 is uncontested, and several other races have relatively thin fields compared to past cycles. Is that a one-off, or a real shift in Oakland politics?<\/p>\n

Esther: The heavy use of AI in election communications is another one we\u2019re watching.<\/p>\n

For listeners who want the practical details, when does voting actually start?<\/p>\n

Darwin: Ballots go out to every registered voter starting Oct. 5. Drop boxes open the following day, Oct. 6. In-person voting centers open Oct. 31. And Election Day itself is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

This episode of Oaklandside 510<\/a> was produced by Mark Nieto and hosted by Tasneem Raja.<\/p>\n

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