The Oaklandside hosted a forum with seven candidates running for mayor in the April 15 special election
Oakland residents care deeply about the future of their city.
That much was clear from the sold-out, engaged crowd at The Oaklandside’s mayoral candidate forum Wednesday evening at Castlemont High School.
For two riveting hours, seven candidates for the city’s top office tried to prove that they’re best equipped to tackle Oakland’s toughest challenges, from public safety concerns to the budget deficit and shrinking support for the arts.
Oaklandside reporters Azucena Rasilla, Roselyn Romero and Eli Wolfe peppered the candidates with a wide range of questions, not shying away from holding them accountable for past statements and positions that haven’t aged well. In crafting our questions for the candidates, we took inspiration from the more than 500 Oaklanders who submitted a question in advance that they wanted us to ask.
Here’s some of what we asked the mayoral hopefuls about:
Their plans to improve safety despite the city’s dearth of financial resources
How they’ll balance the Oakland’s budget and raise new revenue
Whether Oakland should change its approach to managing homeless encampments
How can Oakland keep supporting the arts despite the hard economic times we’ve fallen on
While most gave earnest answers, only some offered tangible solutions.
Candidates present were Barbara Lee, Mindy Pechenuk, Suz Robinson, Eric Simpson, Elizabeth Swaney, Loren Taylor and Renia Webb.
Around 900 people tuned into the forum remotely on Zoom.
A portion of the forum focused on the new federal administration and President Donald Trump’s threats to withhold funding from sanctuary cities like Oakland. Ximena Loeza, reporter from our partner newsroom El Tímpano, asked the candidates questions submitted by their audience of Latino and Mayan immigrants in Oakland.
The forum closed out with a question, submitted by an Oaklandside reader, one that’s likely on many people’s minds. “Being mayor seems like an impossible, thankless job,” they said. “Why do you want it?”
Missed the event? Watch the entire forum in the video below. If you prefer audio, you can listen to our partner KALW’s recording of the evening.
Find more in-depth coverage of the April 15 special election from The Oaklandside.
The candidates
Barbara Lee: Lee is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Oakland and part of Alameda County for around three decades. She announced her run for Oakland mayor on Jan. 8. Lee was the first Black woman elected to the state legislature representing a Northern California district and the first elected to Congress as well. Her priorities include addressing homelessness, public safety, mental health services, and fiscal responsibility to maintain key city services.
Mindy Pechenuk: An economist, classical music scholar, and follower of the deceased conspiracy theorist and perennial presidential gadfly Lyndon LaRouche, Pechenuk in November announced her candidacy on Facebook by writing that she will “end the insane ordinances and oversight commissions that are making it impossible for our police to do their job” and “go after the drug cartels.” On her website, she emphasizes that she is “the only candidate who fully backed and played a leadership role in electing the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
Suz Robinson: Robinson is an Oakland resident and serves as the vice president of governance and stakeholder engagement for the Bay Area Council, a business association. In an introduction video for her campaign, she said that she’s been involved in public safety work through community policing efforts. She also lists her work with several LGTBQ+-related organizations. Robinson has worked for over a decade as a volunteer rafting guide. She cites this experience as an example of how she has learned to take action during tough situations.
Eric Simpson: A machine operator at Ghirardelli Chocolate factory in San Leandro and a member of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 125, Simpson is the Socialist Workers Party’s candidate for mayor. He is running as a longtime unionist who, among other things, opposes the roundups and deportations of undocumented workers. “Only by organizing the working class can we solve the problems in Oakland and elsewhere,” Simpson told one Oaklander, as quoted in the SWP’s newsweekly, The Militant.
Elizabeth Swaney: Swaney is most widely known for her viral halfpipe performance at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where she represented Hungary. The former Olympian has set her sights on a variety of other lofty goals over the years, including a brief run against Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor of California. In her campaign for Oakland mayor, the part-time stand-up comedian is running on a platform prioritizing safe and inclusive communities; innovative revenue streams, such as corporate sponsorship for city property; reviving arts funding for filmmakers, comedians, and artists; and creating a tech hub in Oakland — a project she refers to as “Project Stargate.” She also proposes connecting parts of the city via aerial gondola.
Loren Taylor: A third-generation Oaklander and former city councilmember, Taylor is running for Oakland mayor after narrowly losing in his previous run against Sheng Thao. He is a founder of Empower Oakland, a volunteer-led advocacy group that got involved in local politics by backing candidates and pushing for the recalls of both Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. If elected, he plans to increase Oakland’s police force to 800 officers, restore closed fire stations, bring back City Hall employees, require “concessions from city budget stakeholders,” and eliminate taxes for businesses with revenue under $1.5 million.
Renia Webb: Webb is former staffer for Thao when she was a District 4 city councilmember. In recent years, she became a vocal critic of Thao and has claimed to have served as a witness in the FBI investigation against Thao; her partner, Andre Jones; and David and Andy Duong of California Waste Solutions. Webb currently works as an educator for Crocker Highlands Elementary School. Her priorities include increased public safety through programs such as Ceasefire, economic stability and fiscal responsibility, building more affordable housing, and supporting better public health care.
Two candidates for mayor will were not present at The Oaklandside’s forum: President Cristina Grappo and Peter Liu. Tyron Jordan announced his withdrawal from the race on Tuesday and threw his support behind Barbara Lee’s campaign.
The Topics
Public safety: While crime was down in Oakland in 2024, public safety concerns around certain kinds of crime helped bring down the former mayor and the former district attorney, and they’re sure to play a significant role in this special election as well. Today the issue centers on the staffing and spending of the police and fire departments. To help close the city’s nearly $130 million budget shortfall, city leaders want to cut OPD overtime spending by $25 million for the current fiscal year, but OPD argues that overtime is necessary to mitigate the shortage of officers. Three Oakland firehouses have also been temporarily closed since early January to address the city’s budget crisis — a different sort of public safety issue that took on more urgency after wildfires tore through Los Angeles.
The budget: Oakland is in the middle of a budget crisis. The city isn’t raising enough money to pay for various public services, especially police and fire, creating a budget deficit. Last year, the situation grew worse because the mayor and city council tried to cover the projected shortfall with anticipated revenue from the sale of the Coliseum. Delays to that transaction forced the city to adopt a backup budget that slashed tens of millions of dollars from various services. City officials also agreed to cut police overtime, temporarily shuttered two fire stations, laid off dozens of city workers, and canceled over a dozen contracts with community organizations. These cost-saving measures have reduced the projected budget shortfall that Oakland is facing at the end of the fiscal year in June. But the city still needs to make big changes to reach long-term fiscal stability. The mayor drafts the city’s budget, so whoever wins in April will have an enormous role to play in the future of Oakland’s finances.
Immigration, community, and culture: Will the new mayor uphold Oakland’s status as a sanctuary city, despite threats from the Justice Department to prosecute local officials who defy Trump’s crackdown on immigration? And what will happen to the cultural fabric of the city after the slashing of the Cultural Affairs Commission’s already tiny budget, not to mention the shelving of $500,000 in film incentives?
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