For those that want to keep track of the details of who is filing, who is pulling papers for all the elected offices in November, by far the best resource is Mike McMahon’s website, where he has logged in all the information here. But if you must immediately know who has filed for City Council (or rather who has pulled papers for City Council) immediately, you can contact the City Clerk and get on her end of the day email blast to be one of the first to know which candidates have pulled so far. If everyone who has pulled papers decides to actually run, it is going to be a really crowded field. I anticipate a few extra filers because the Action Alameda crowd has yet to put up a candidate yet, Leland Traiman doesn’t count because of reasons that I’ll go into below.
I’ll just note, since I’m on the topic of people running for office, that I was surprised — but not shocked — that Beverly Johnson is choosing to run again. First because there had been talk that she wasn’t going to run, but mostly because she was recently appointed to a State position by Governor Jerry Brown:
Gov. Jerry Brown has named Councilwoman Beverly Johnson as deputy director at the state Office of Administrative Law.
Johnson, 53, a Democrat, has been a councilwoman since 2010; her term is up at the end of this year. Earlier, she was the city’s mayor from 2002 to 2010 and a councilwoman from 1998 to 2002. This position requires state Senate confirmation and the annual salary is $124,236. Brown announced the appointment on July 16.
Which, I believe, is headquartered in or near Sacramento. While certainly she could commute and still live in Alameda it seems like a really long schlep. And, as someone once commented upon hearing this news, seriously I didn’t say it and won’t take credit for it, something along the lines of: how will Beverly Johnson make it to meetings on time if she has to commute from Sacramento when she can’t make it to meetings on time now and she works across the street. Touche.
And finally, even though right now Leland Traiman has pulled papers for City Council, School Board, AND the Hospital Board either because he is indecisive or he wanted to throw everyone for a loop and keep them guessing as to which office he would decide to run for, Save out City! Alameda has already tipped his hand and revealed his intentions by endorsing him for Hospital Board even before he has filed his papers for Hospital Board. Or perhaps they have the power of precognition over there and were able to divine his true desires for elected office. Which ever it is, see below, I gave the below a little Perez Hilton treatment for your viewing pleasure, you’ll have to click to enlarge:
Blogging Bayport Alameda 
Those commissions are total ripoffs of the taxpayer and should all be eliminated as has been suggested many times, but they continue to be political payoffs for loyal party followers. Congratulations Beverly!
It appears to be the usual collection of weirdos and misfits.
Comment by commonsense — August 3, 2012 @ 7:31 pm