Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Dellums Running for Mayor of Oakland

Former Congressman and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ronald Dellums (D-CA) announced his bid for Mayor of Oakland as current Mayor Jerry Brown (D) exits after two terms. Brown, incidentally, is a favored candidate for state Attorney General.

Dellums was pulled into campaign mode after living a comfortable life as a lobbyist. In fact, there was a campaign to draft Dellums into service and he initially declined.

"I have experience at bringing people together around problem-solving," Dellums said. "So in that sense, the voters in Oakland aren't taking a leap of faith. I have 31 years in elected office they can look to."

But, it's not the same Oakland - it's much more Latino, much more Asian and gentrifying heavily with Whites. Dellums will have an uphill challenge based on demographics that have dramatically changed since he was last in office.