Official coalition of workers, families, and small businesses opposing Barbara Lee for re-election as Oakland Mayor 2026. Enough is enough.
Oakland, CA
Joined June 2026
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Oakland voters just rejected Mayor Barbara Lee’s parcel tax by a clear margin. They were told it was necessary for public safety. The data tells a different story…
Under Measure NN, voters approved roughly $47 million per year with a specific commitment: maintain 700 sworn Oakland police officers. As of early 2026, OPD has approximately 618 sworn officers — roughly 90 below the legal mandate and more than 250 below the independent recommendation of 877.
Attrition continues, with dozens more officers on extended leave. Despite multiple tax measures and repeated assurances, the department remains critically understaffed for the workload the city faces. Voters just declined to write another blank check.
This is not an isolated funding issue. Mayor Lee accepted significant contributions from the Duong family, owners of California Waste Solutions, who were later tied to the federal corruption case involving her predecessor. The family ranked among her largest donors. Some contributions were returned only after indictments and public scrutiny intensified.
The pattern is consistent: proximity to the previous administration’s problems, reliance on new revenue measures, and outcomes that have not matched the promises made to voters. Oakland residents are experiencing the results in real time — on the streets, in response times, and in basic service delivery.
The structural budget deficit remains severe. Executive priorities have included significant staff compensation increases even as the city grapples with vacancies and service gaps. Voters appear to have noticed the disconnect.
Accountability is not partisan. It is the basic requirement of effective local government. Mayor Lee’s first year has revealed the same challenges that led to the previous recall — now with new leadership at the helm.
Do you believe Mayor Barbara Lee should run for re-election in November?
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Follow @FireBarbaraLee for ongoing, evidence-based analysis of the mayor’s record and administration. The full picture matters. – at Oakland, CA
Oakland’s 911 system went down last week.
Dispatchers watched the computer system freeze. Phone lines went dead. Internet died. For more than 24 hours, every 911 call in the city had to be routed to the Alameda County Sheriff while Oakland police only answered the absolute highest priority calls. Fire still handled medical calls. Everything else waited.
Police said copper and fiber lines were cut. The chief called it a perfect example of theft that could cost people their lives. Backup systems failed. The city and AT&T spent the night repairing cut cables before full service returned days later.
This is the same city that spent years with some of the worst 911 answer times in California. The state standard is 90 percent of calls answered in 15 seconds. Oakland was at 37 percent in 2023. It climbed to 80 percent in August. Still short of the standard. Still short of full dispatcher staffing. Then the whole system collapsed because someone cut a wire.
Barbara Lee stood at a press conference and said 911 was ready. Residents who called during the outage know that was not true. A city that cannot keep its own emergency lines working is not a city that is safe. It is a city that is one cut cable away from silence when people need help.
This is who has been failing Oakland. – at Oakland, CA
See why Oakland cannot afford another four years of Barbara Lee.
FireBarbaraLee.com – at Oakland, CA
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
“Oakland mayor wants to give local lawmakers pay rises of up to $108,000 despite California city being byword for failure and squalor” via @DailyMail
dailymail.com/news/article-1… – at Oakland, CA
This morning outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building I asked Sheng Thao three questions.
1.) Who is paying for her lawyer?
2.) Does she endorse Barbara Lee for re-election?
3.) Does she endorse Measure EE, the strong-mayor charter amendment?
She did not respond.
Measure EE would give the mayor veto power, direct control over most department heads, and more executive authority than Oakland has today. Barbara Lee broke a tie to put it on the November ballot. It is too soon to hand the mayor’s office even more power while the last mayor is on trial for allegedly selling it.
The trial resumes today. Stay tuned.
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
Remember that Barbara Lee had an entire hand picked group work on this charter amendment, measure EE, for a YEAR.
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
East Bay Insiders just published the Alameda County Ballot Watchdog Committee’s review of November measures, and Oakland’s Measure EE got the worst score of the entire county: 1.8 out of 5.
The committee does not take sides on policy. It only grades whether the ballot summary is accurate, impartial, and informative. EE failed. They said it crams too many changes into one question, uses vague language about “additional provisions,” and never explains the financial consequences.
That is not an accident. Measure EE rewrites the city charter so the mayor becomes CEO with a veto over laws and a line-item veto over the budget. It also hands the Public Ethics Commission power to reset elected pay. The City Auditor’s impartial analysis puts the annual cost at $2 million to $2.6 million, with council raises estimated at $36,000 to $108,000 each. None of that is clear on the ballot.
Barbara Lee broke a 4-4 council tie to put this on the ballot for the office she holds. The official argument against it, signed by Loren Taylor and others, already called it a power grab. Now the neutral ballot watchdogs are saying the language itself hides what voters are actually approving.
When City Hall writes a ballot question that scores a 1.8, the safest vote is no.
Do not hand Barbara Lee more power. Vote NO on Measure EE. Ballots are already out. OaklandPowerGrab.com – at Oakland, CA
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
NBC Bay Area just ran a 36-second explainer on Oakland’s Measure EE. Here is what they did not have time to say.
On November 3 a simple majority can lock a new system into the city charter. The mayor becomes CEO, gets a veto over laws, and gets a line-item veto over the budget. One person can zero out a park, a street, or a neighborhood project. It takes six of eight council votes to undo it. The City Auditor’s impartial analysis says the package costs $2 million to $2.6 million a year, mostly because the Public Ethics Commission would reset elected pay, with council raises estimated at $36,000 to $108,000 each.
Barbara Lee is the one selling this. She convened the working group, she and Council President Kevin Jenkins wrote the plan, and she broke a 4-4 council tie to put it on the ballot for the office she holds and is running to keep. Councilmembers Zac Unger, Janani Ramachandran, Noel Gallo, and Ken Houston voted no.
The official argument against it, signed by Loren Taylor, Budget Advisory Commission member Ben Gould, Pam Drake, and Naomi Schiff, calls it a power grab. Their words: it makes government less transparent, increases the risk of corruption, and drives gridlock. A future mayor could appoint unqualified friends to department jobs. And it hands councilmembers massive pay raises while asking them to do less. Nate Miley, Nancy Nadel, and former Ethics Commission chair Ralph Kanz are on the no side too. – at Oakland, CA
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
Barbara Lee has yet to return all donations from the MAGA supporting Duong family, who poured millions into Republican causes and more than $300,000 into Trump's campaign.
The trial of Oakland’s disgraced, recalled mayor Sheng Thao shows a familiar pattern: Whatever Oakland’s “progressives” accuse others of doing is the very thing they’re doing themselves.
Their accusations are confessions.
They smeared the recalls as “right-wing” and called Loren Taylor MAGA, even putting a mailer out with Loren photo side-by-side with Trump.
The same progressives who spent years suckling at the Duongs’ teats had the audacity to call everyone else MAGA.
Their accusations are confessions.
It's time to end corruption in Oakland.
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
Here is data showing every Oakland government employee salary, including Mayor Barbara Lee. sfchronicle.com/projects/202…
Oaklandside just tried to split Barbara Lee’s record into highs and lows. There are no highs.
Deficits projected through 2030. Voters rejected her parcel tax. $24 million in federal money lost or delayed. Only 601 of 678 police jobs filled. 61 officers on leave. A police academy that started with 22 and graduated 14. About six officers walking out every month. She still has not hit the 700-officer mandate voters already paid for.
Encampments went up while she claimed homelessness was down. Downtown office vacancy near 38%. Buildings in foreclosure. The city auditor called the illegal dumping strategy a failure. Her city administrator was lost to a texting scandal. The strong mayor rewrite opponents called a power grab.
What the Oaklandside called highs were checks. Crankstart. Kaiser. Kapor. Private money to paper over a city that cannot fund itself, then a nonprofit newsroom treats the checks like a record.
That is Barbara Lee’s Oakland. A woman attacked at 8 a.m. while opening Javi’s Cooking. A Sunday shelter-in-place after a man shot at police and set a house on fire. A 23-year soul food landmark closed, and she posted that she stopped by to celebrate. The Raiders, the Warriors, and the A’s gone, and she hyped a frisbee title. A $1 million plan to pay unhoused people to pick up trash they create.
Leave Barbara Lee off your ballot for Mayor by November 3. – at Oakland, CA
oaklandside.org/2026/09/28/t… – at Oakland, CA
Oakland has seen enough. Add your name and tell Barbara Lee to step down at FireBarbaraLee.com. – at Oakland, CA
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
Oaklandside just laid out what Measure EE actually does, and it is worse than the slogan.
On November 3, a simple majority can rewrite Oakland’s charter and make the mayor the city’s CEO. That means a veto over laws and a line-item veto over the budget. One person can zero out a park, a street, or a neighborhood project. It takes six of eight council votes to undo it. The City Auditor says the package costs $2 million to $2.6 million a year, mostly because the Public Ethics Commission would reset elected pay, with council raises estimated at $36,000 to $108,000 each.
Barbara Lee is the one selling this. She convened the working group, she and Council President Kevin Jenkins wrote the plan, and she broke a 4-4 council tie to put it on the ballot for the office she holds and is running to keep.
The official argument against it, signed by Loren Taylor, Budget Advisory Commission member Ben Gould, Pam Drake, and Naomi Schiff, calls it a power grab. Their words, not mine: it makes government less transparent, increases the risk of corruption, and drives gridlock. A future mayor could appoint unqualified friends to department jobs. A veto lets one office block what a council majority already passed. And it hands councilmembers massive pay raises while asking them to do less.
Nate Miley, Nancy Nadel, former Ethics Commission chair Ralph Kanz, James Vann, and Sharon Rose are on the no side too. The yes side is Lee, Libby Schaaf, and the people who already run City Hall.
This is not reform. It is a permanent charter veto, a pay reset, and a tie-breaking vote cast by the person who benefits.
Vote NO on Measure EE by November 3. – at Oakland, CA
A married couple was shot dead Friday at their home in the Oakland Hills.
Panoramic Way. He was 61. She was 63. Neighbors called after hearing the shots. Both were dead by the time police got there. A gun was found on the scene. Still no one is in custody.
That is the hills. The part of Oakland people were told was safe.
That is 37 homicides in Oakland this year. A couple in their 60s, killed at their home, in the hills, before lunch.
Barbara Lee is still talking about progress. Still talking about pilots. Still asking for another four years. Do not give them to her. It is time she retires.
This is who has been failing Oakland. – at Oakland, CA
Sign the petition asking Barbara Lee to drop out of the Oakland Mayor’s race at FireBarbaraLee.com. – at Oakland, CA
A woman opening an Oakland restaurant got attacked at 8 a.m.
She works at Javi’s Cooking, an empanada shop at 35th and Market in West Oakland. An unhoused man asked her for money. She said no. She needed to open. He waited in the parklet, came up from behind, and shoved her against the roll-up door.
She went to the hospital. The owner says she is more psychologically damaged than physically. She is scared.
Owner Javier Sandes said this is not a one-off. “Every week there’s always something that we have to deal with besides running a business.” Homeless people on the sidewalk. Property vandalized. His truck set on fire in June. He says police do not show up in time and his complaints to city officials have gone nowhere.
That is Barbara Lee’s Oakland. A small business trying to open in the morning and a worker getting assaulted outside the door. Then City Hall posts about pilots, proclamations, and progress.
If you cannot keep a woman safe while she unlocks a restaurant, you are not running a city. You are managing decline.
This is who has been failing Oakland. – at Oakland, CA
See why Barbara Lee is a bad choice at FireBarbaraLee.com. – at Oakland, CA
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Learn more at OaklandPowerGrab.com. – at Oakland, CA