Libby Schaaf cruises to second term as Oakland mayor

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf appears to have been comfortably re-elected to a second term in Tuesday’s election despite facing nine challengers.

With nearly half of precincts reporting as of early Wednesday morning, Schaaf had 61.5 percent of the vote. Nonprofit executive director Cat Brooks had 19 percent and civil rights attorney Pamela Price had 11 percent.

None of the other challengers had more than 2 percent of the vote.

In an interview before the election, Schaaf said she ran for a second term because “I want to finish the job I started.”

She said, “Oakland’s problems are complex and many of the solutions are just starting to take hold and I’d like to seem them come to fruition.”

Schaaf’s accomplishments include dramatic decreases in gun homicides and gang-involved shootings and increases in getting more black and Latino students into college through her Oakland Promise initiative.

But her term as mayor has also been marred by a sexual exploitation scandal involving the city’s Police Department and the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in 2016 that claimed 36 lives.

Brooks, who’s widely known as leader of the activist group the Anti Police-Terror Project, said she sought the city’s top job because “hundreds of Oaklanders asked me to run.”

Brooks said rents are out of control, pushing people into the streets and alleged that the Police Department is plagued by misconduct and other problems.

Price, who unsuccessfully ran against Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley in the June election, said she ran “because our city is broken” and “Oakland is at a crossroads.”

Bay City News

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