13) Berkeley Mayor’s Race and City Council
Berzerkeley!!! The mecca of the American progressive movement! Home of the flagship school of the UC system (and Trumer Pils)! Birthplace of the protest movement and farm-to-table dining! Coming this November: a mayoral election to see who replaces four-term Mayor Tom Bates that involves a liberal pragmatist facing off against a tag team of ardent progressives. But there’s more! Berkeley City Council Districts two, three, five, and six are all up for grabs with a total of 20 candidates on the ballot.
Who are we watching?
Mayor:
Jesse Arreguin, Councilmember
Laurie Capitelli, councilmember
Ben Gould, graduate student
Mike Lee, community-volunteer
Naomi Pete
Zachary Running Wolf, indigenous elder
Bernet Wahl, entrepreneur/professor
Kriss Worthington, councilmember
City Council Candidates:
District 2:
Nancy Armstrong-Temple, teacher
Cheryl Davila, city commissioner
Darryl Moore, councilmember
District 3:
Ben Bartlett, director of environmental non-profit
Mark Coplan, retired school administrator
Deborah Matthews, educator
Al Murray, personnel board chair
District 5:
Sophie Hahn, zoning adjustments board member
Stephen Murphy, City Planning commissioner
District 6:
Fred Dodsworth, retired journalist
Isabella Gaston, medical writer
Susan Wengraf, councilmember
The Numbers:
City Wide totals: 79,814 (69% Dem, 3.5% Rep.)
Notable Racial Make-up: 7% Latino, 10% Asian, 15% African American)
What/Who are we watching?
Mayor's Race
After 14 years at the helm of the city government, and 20 years in the State Assembly before that, Mayor Tom Bates has decided to end his illustrious career and not seek a fifth term in City Hall. Nine candidates have declared their intent to run including three city councilmen, a UC Berkeley grad student, and even a homeless man. Elections in Berkeley are often a contest to see who best exemplifies the meaning of “progressive” while also providing practical policy ideas that would lead to sound governance. That certainly characterizes this year’s election where the two frontrunners, Laurie Capitelli and Jesse Arreguin, have differing views as to how to move the city forward.
Mr. Capitelli is Mayor Bates’ chosen successor. He is a former member of the City Planning and Zone Adjustment Boards and has served on the city council representing District 5 since 2004. Mr. Capitelli, who was instrumental in bringing about the soda tax in 2014 and the recently agreed to minimum wage increase (to $15 by 2018), is part of the “council majority,” which includes members such as Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio, and he generally falls to the right of the more progressive minority. Mr. Capitelli is basing his campaign on the issues of affordable housing, raising the minimum wage and by pointing to his record of practical policy deliverables. He recently told the San Francisco Chronicle: “What does it mean to be a progressive in a community like Berkeley? And the reality is you need to get things done, and getting things done isn’t just platitudes. If one of my opponents is victorious, I think we will probably wind up with a great deal of rhetoric and very little progress.”
Along with Mayor Bates, Capitelli’s endorsements include Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff, the League of Conservation Voters of the East Bay, Berkeley Police Association, Berkeley Democrat Club, Councilmembers Maio, Moore, Wengraf, and Droste, as well as former California State Assembly member Nancy Skinner, California State Senator Loni Hancock and even former U.S Secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich (who worked with Capitelli on both the soda tax and minimum wage).
Opposing Capitelli are two members of the progressive minority he is so often at odds with, councilmember Jesse Arreguin and councilmember Jess Worthington. Seeking to take advantage of the city’s ranked-choice voting system, Arreguin and Worthington are presenting themselves as a coalition and are encouraging voters to utilize the city’s rank voting system to rank the two candidates as their top choices. The rank voting system allows voters to rank up to three candidates, in order of preference, when marking their ballots. The votes of the candidate with the lowest percentage of first-place votes are transferred to those voters’ second choice until a single candidate wins a majority of votes. Both candidates have been clear as to the goal of this arrangement: keep Capitelli out of the Mayor’s office.
While Worthington’s name is officially on the ballot, it is Arreguin who is the “lead dog” of the campaign. Arreguin has endorsements from the East Bay Young Democrats, Cal Berkeley Democrats, Sierra Club, the California Nurses Association and Alameda Labor Council, SEIU, and former Berkeley mayors Shirley Dean and Gus Newport. Not to be outdone by Reich’s endorsement of Capitelli, Arreguin secured the endorsement of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to re-enforce his progressive credentials (LA Times). “I think this is a watershed election not just on the national level but also in Berkeley,” Arreguin told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We really have two Berkeleys. We have one Berkeley that’s very prosperous and we have another part of our city where there are huge disparities in health, academic achievement and income. Who we elect as mayor will play a critical role in that.”
Arreguin has been critical of Capitelli’s stances on housing and business development and has cast his campaign as a grassroots movement against development interests that supposedly back Capitelli. Arreguin points to the fundraising discrepancy between the two candidates as an example. Mr. Capitelli raised $67,135 during the first six months of 2016 while Mr. Arreguin’s campaign collected just $24,858. Large portions of Mr. Arreguin’s contributions are attributed to those who oppose the construction of an 18-story apartment complex that Capitelli supports. Daily Cal
District 2
Incumbent Darryl Moore, the first openly gay, black city council member, is looking for a fourth term for the District 2 seat he has held since 2004. Moore, who is also part of the council majority, lists his most major accomplishments as his push for the implementation of body-worn cameras for police officers and his work on affordable housing issues.
Facing off against Moore is Human Welfare and Community Action Commissioner Cheryl Davila. In an interesting turn of events, Moore appointed Davila to the Commission and then removed her after she authorized an Israel divestment proposal in September 2015. Davila was then reappointed to the commission in March before declaring her candidacy for the council.
The third candidate in the running, Nanci Armstrong-Temple, runs a dance program in Berkeley and was endorsed by a group of progressive voters that includes the Berkeley Progressive Alliance.
District 3
Max Anderson is stepping down from his District 3 seat after 12 years on City Council. Mr. Anderson has endorsed Ben Bartlett as his replacement. Mr. Bartlett is currently a City Planning Commissioner and used to serve on the Police Review Commission. Bartlett wants to tackle the city’s affordable housing crisis and better prepare for the impending closure of Alta Bates Hospital.
Four other candidates are joining Bartlett on the ballot: Mark Coplan, Deborah Matthews, Dylan McCall and Al Murray. Coplan, who in June retired as spokesperson for the Berkeley Unified School District, has been involved with the district for more than 20 years and hopes to continue focusing on education if elected. Murray is the chair of the Berkeley personnel board. Matthews is the vice chair of the city’s Planning Commission, having previously served as chair of the Housing Commission and Zoning Adjustments Board. Given the excellent credentials these candidates posses, this should be the most competitive race other than the mayoral.
District 5
Laurie Capitelli’s decision to run for mayor leaves the seat in District 5 wide open, with Stephen Murphy and Sophie Hahn vying for the position. Murphy is the chair of the City Planning Commission and also serves on the Commission on the Status of Women. Murphy’s campaign is centered on his experience advocating for affordable housing, jobs and fair labor standards and working toward reducing homelessness in the city. Like Capitelli, he believes in a pragmatic approach. “I believe in pragmatics, I believe in progressive (policies),” Murphy said at the event. “Anyone who works (in Berkeley) … should also have the right to live here if they wish.” (DailyCal)
Ms. Hahn has run unsuccessfully for the seat against Capitelli in the 2008 and 2012 elections. She currently sits on the Zoning Adjustments Board and plans to use her candidacy to address issues of sustainability and affordable housing. “The homeless crisis is our greatest humanitarian challenge in Berkeley and in the United States,” Hahn said at a recent event. “I oppose the criminalization of the homeless, and the use of police and emergency rooms are most expensive resources to address a problem that can be only served with housing.” (DailyCal)
District 6
Incumbent Susan Wengraf faces a challenge from Fred Dodsworth and Isabelle Gaston in the race for the District 6 City Council seat. Wengraf, who has held office since 2008, says, if re-elected, she said she would focus on public safety, a parking plan and addressing property crimes. In addition, Wengraf supports the adoption of ordinances regulating street behavior and limiting the amount of personal belongings on sidewalks. In 2014, Ms. Wengraf drew some criticism from the community after co-introducing a proposal to implement a security camera database that would aid police investigations.
Both of Ms. Wengraf’s opponents hope to convince voters that they can bring a fresh perspective to the council. Mr. Dodsworth, who has been endorsed by a coalition of progressive groups, is a former publishing executive and founder of the Bay Area Business Magazine. He is particularly concerned about Berkeley’s housing crisis, homelessness and climate change. Mr. Dodsworth also noted that he opposes large luxury apartments, which he said drives up rents in surrounding neighborhoods.
Ms. Gaston is the president of the North East Berkeley Association, a neighborhood advocacy group. She has focused her campaign on the city’s infrastructure and fiscal deficit issues including a building maintenance backlog of over $16 Million. “If elected I pledge to focus like a laser beam on our financial health,” Gaston said. “I believe it is our moral obligation to not leave these massive debts to the next generation.” (DailyCal)