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
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
FireBarbaraLee.com retweeted
🚨 ALERT: Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee just voted to give herself a veto power over the entire city, and most people still do not know it is on the November ballot.
Here is what happened in plain English.
City Council was deadlocked 4 to 4 on a proposal to rewrite Oakland’s charter and turn the mayor into the city’s CEO. That job would come with the power to kill laws and erase budget lines the 80-year-old mayor does or her handlers do not like. It would take six of eight councilmembers to undo it. Barbara Lee broke the tie. She cast the deciding vote to put that power in front of voters while she is sitting in the office that would receive it, and while she is running to keep that office.
This is the same Barbara Lee who accepted $67,950 from the Duong crime family now at the center of Oakland’s federal corruption case. The same mayor who stood with Sheng Thao (now facing 95 years), told voters a recall would be undemocratic, and watched the city remove Thao anyway. The same politician who parked basement rental income in a relative’s trust for 14 years while giving speeches about housing as a human right. The same former member of Congress who flew family on lobbyist-funded luxury trips with her husband to the German alps, then came home and asked Oakland for more taxes. The same City Hall that lost the Raiders, the Warriors, and the A’s, then posted about an ultimate frisbee championship. The same week Oakland saw a repeat stabber stab 4 more people and light someone’s home on fire, she put out a proclamation for Natural Mai Tai Day.
Voters already rejected the June tax she was made to champion. There answer is not to earn back trust. There answer is veto power.
If she cannot deliver clean streets, working basics, and a budget people believe in with the power she already has, Oakland should not hand her more.
Vote NO on Measure EE by November 3. – at Oakland, CA
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee is paying homeless people $30/hour to clean up their own trash.
That is part of a new $1,000,000 pilot program the city just launched. Part-time sanitation jobs to pick up the mess around encampments. Portland already tried this and it doesn’t work.
Oakland cannot keep the streets clean. Dumping is still everywhere. Encampments are still everywhere. And the mayor’s answer is to pay the people creating the mess to tidy it up.
Pay people to manage the trash they leave and you get more trash. That is how incentives work.
This is not compassion. This is Barbara Lee refusing to enforce the basics and dressing it up as a program.
Leave Barbara Lee off your ballot for Mayor 2026. – at Oakland, CA
Add your name to the list of 4,000+ people asking her to retire at FireBarbaraLee.com/sign. – at Oakland, CA
