Oakland taxpayers deserve accountability, not another tax hike.
Oakland, CA
Joined April 2026
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Oakland voters just rejected a parcel tax for the first time in 15 years.
The Yes on Measure E campaign spent over $1.1 million trying to ram it through. We defeated it while being outspent significantly.
They deployed paid signature mercenaries, Sacramento consultants, and the same broken fear playbook. It didn’t work.
Final results:
No — 57,379 (54.07%)
Yes — 48,741 (45.93%)
Voters saw the machine and said no. – at Oakland, CA
Oakland just buried the Yes on Measure E machine — and the receipts are brutal.
They spent over $1.1 MILLION DOLLARS (when you count the full union ecosystem and parallel spends) to lose by 8,638 votes. First parcel tax defeat in 15 years. The “professionals” — Sacramento compliance fixers, Vegas signature mercenaries, six-figure consultants with 95% win rates, and union bosses desperate to protect their fiefdoms — ran the same insider playbook one more time.
Oakland voters said NO.
Here’s exactly who got exposed and why the machine is finally cracking.
The signature “grassroots” con:
They bragged about “nearly 30,000 Oakland voters” signing in 11 weeks. The filings show the committee paid $396,000 to Goco Partners, LLC in Las Vegas, Nevada for “petition circulating” — two separate $198,000 payments on January 7 and February 5.
That’s more than $13.20 per signature based on the campaign’s own “nearly 30,000” claim. Paid operators. Not neighbors. Not volunteers. A corporate buy to exploit the Upland loophole and dodge the two-thirds vote they knew they’d never clear. The “citizen initiative” was a transactional operation from day one.
Goco in turn reported $183,111 in payments to three California petition firms: Bay Area Petitions (Santa Cruz) $57,408, On the Ground Inc. (Norwalk) $58,240, and West Coast Petitions (Pleasant Hill) $67,463.
Sacramento ran the whole thing:
The main committee (FPPC #1485035) listed its headquarters at 1700 Tribute Road, Suite 201, Sacramento — the offices of Deane & Company.
Principal officer/treasurer David Padilla. Assistant treasurer Shawnda Deane. They didn’t use a local East Bay firm. They brought in the state capital’s Democratic compliance machine because this was never about Oakland neighborhoods — it was a high-stakes revenue extraction play that needed institutional-grade loophole navigation and risk management.
Deane & Company received $11,716.10 in recurring professional-services payments from January through May. They also dropped serious money on Olson Remcho, LLP (the heavyweight Democratic election law firm) — $18,084.30 total — to clean up the Upland strategy and the collusion allegations. When the City Council allegedly paused its own tax work the second the union petition launched, you need expensive lawyers to paper over the coordination.
The early payment timeline shows a deliberately assembled professional infrastructure right from the start: Olson Remcho on January 2, Goco Partners on January 7, AdMail Express on January 9, Deane & Company on January 14, and The Lew Edwards Group on January 16.
The consultant class that cashed checks and still lost:
Catherine Lew’s firm, The Lew Edwards Group, received $37,500 in five monthly $7,500 campaign-consulting payments (coded CNS) from January 16 through May 14, 2026. The gold-standard tax measure operation. 95% win rate. $38.5 billion in taxes passed across California. They were at the strategic helm.
They lost in Oakland.
Even their elite polling and messaging couldn’t overcome the fact that voters have lived through the last round of these promises. Measure NN sold hard on 700 police officers. Active staffing sat at 610, with only around 509 fully operational. Money got redirected into the black hole. The “execution gap” wasn’t theory — it was the lived reality that made the new fear-mongering ring completely hollow.
Then there’s consultant Jim Ross, the veteran labor operative who did the post-mortem rounds. He said it out loud: the “fire stations will close,” “911 will collapse” threats are “played out.” “If you get threatened enough and nothing bad happens, maybe you lose some credibility.”
The fear merchants admitted their core product is losing potency. That’s the machine confessing the old software is buggy as hell.
NO on Measure E 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
NO on Measure E retweeted
Oakland Measure EE is Barbara Lee’s power grab.
Measure EE rewrites the City Charter so one mayor can veto Council legislation, line-item veto the budget, and take control of city departments. Your district representative can fight for a street, a park, or a neighborhood project. Under EE, the mayor can zero it out. Stopping her takes six of eight votes. Three allies and the rest of the Council becomes what Zac Unger already called it: a punching bag.
The same measure writes politicians a raise. Council pay is $114,678. Measure EE forces them full-time, then lets the Public Ethics Commission benchmark salaries against cities like Los Angeles at about $245,000. That is a path to a 125% pay hike. The City Auditor put the first-year cost at $2.0 to $2.6 million. Oakland is already staring at a $115 to $135 million annual shortfall through 2030.
Lee’s working group designed the version that gives the mayor the most power. The Council tied 4-4. She broke the tie herself and put her own expansion of power on the same ballot where she is running to keep the job.
She does not deserve more of it.
Under this mayor, Oakland lost the last of its major sports teams and now gets Instagram posts about an ultimate frisbee squad. The airport keeps losing real airlines while City Hall celebrates Frontier. Institutions like Home of Chicken and Waffles close and she shows up for the photo. Crime hits parks and homes while proclamations go out for National Mai Tai Day. That is the record. Measure EE would lock more power into that office for every mayor after her.
This is not reform. It is veto power plus a pay raise, sold as accountability.
Vote NO on Measure EE.
NO on Measure E retweeted
Prop 40 is not a tax on billionaires.
It’s a tax on YOU 🫵
The ultra-wealthy already left. An estimated $2,000,000,000,000+ in wealth has fled the state. California just lost a massive chunk of its tax base. The so-called one-time cash grab creates a permanent spending hole. When it runs dry, Sacramento will come straight for the working class.
This starts with billionaires and millionaires. And it ends with you. Your home equity. Your retirement accounts. Your paper gains. That is the exact slippery slope they are building right now.
They want you focused on “taxing the rich” so you miss the part where the revenue that pays for schools, safety, and services disappears. Once the money is gone, the bill lands on every remaining taxpayer.
They are not asking you to tax billionaires. They are asking you to approve the mechanism that will eventually tax you.
Vote NO on Prop 40. – at California, USA
🤖 Made with AI
NO on Measure E retweeted
Big win in Oakland and Alameda County!
On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to kick the $30 minimum wage measure off the November ballot and ordered an economic impact study first. Supervisors Haubert, Miley, and Tam did the responsible thing. The measure is now delayed until 2028.
The Oakland $30 minimum wage initiative also failed to qualify in time for the November 2026 ballot.
The same outside groups will try again.
We will be ready.
Thank you to everyone involved. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s Strong Mayor Charter Amendment ballot measure is a pure power grab. Plain and simple.
It gives the mayor line-item veto power over the entire budget and the ability to hire and fire department heads. With just three allies on the council, she can override the will of the other five. Neighborhood representatives lose real power. Your district councilmember becomes a bystander.
At the same time, the measure creates a legal pathway for council salaries to jump from $114,000 toward the $245,000 Los Angeles level. That’s a potential 125% pay raise while the city is in fiscal crisis.
Oakland has tried versions of this before and rejected them multiple times. Voters have already said no to concentrating this much power in one office.
The process was stacked. Lee’s hand-picked working group wrote the final version that gives her the most power. When the council deadlocked 4-4, she broke the tie herself to put it on the ballot when she should have recused. The cleaner alternative used by most California cities never got a fair shot.
This doesn’t fix potholes, staffing shortages, or the budget. It just concentrates power and raises politician pay.
Vote NO on Oakland Strong Mayor Charter Amendment by November 3. – at Oakland, CA
🤖 Made with AI
kqed.org/news/12086350/oakla… – at Oakland, CA
Oakland just buried the Yes on Measure E machine — and the receipts are brutal.
They spent over $1.1 MILLION DOLLARS (when you count the full union ecosystem and parallel spends) to lose by 8,638 votes. First parcel tax defeat in 15 years. The “professionals” — Sacramento compliance fixers, Vegas signature mercenaries, six-figure consultants with 95% win rates, and union bosses desperate to protect their fiefdoms — ran the same insider playbook one more time.
Oakland voters said NO.
Here’s exactly who got exposed and why the machine is finally cracking.
The signature “grassroots” con:
They bragged about “nearly 30,000 Oakland voters” signing in 11 weeks. The filings show the committee paid $396,000 to Goco Partners, LLC in Las Vegas, Nevada for “petition circulating” — two separate $198,000 payments on January 7 and February 5.
That’s more than $13.20 per signature based on the campaign’s own “nearly 30,000” claim. Paid operators. Not neighbors. Not volunteers. A corporate buy to exploit the Upland loophole and dodge the two-thirds vote they knew they’d never clear. The “citizen initiative” was a transactional operation from day one.
Goco in turn reported $183,111 in payments to three California petition firms: Bay Area Petitions (Santa Cruz) $57,408, On the Ground Inc. (Norwalk) $58,240, and West Coast Petitions (Pleasant Hill) $67,463.
Sacramento ran the whole thing:
The main committee (FPPC #1485035) listed its headquarters at 1700 Tribute Road, Suite 201, Sacramento — the offices of Deane & Company.
Principal officer/treasurer David Padilla. Assistant treasurer Shawnda Deane. They didn’t use a local East Bay firm. They brought in the state capital’s Democratic compliance machine because this was never about Oakland neighborhoods — it was a high-stakes revenue extraction play that needed institutional-grade loophole navigation and risk management.
Deane & Company received $11,716.10 in recurring professional-services payments from January through May. They also dropped serious money on Olson Remcho, LLP (the heavyweight Democratic election law firm) — $18,084.30 total — to clean up the Upland strategy and the collusion allegations. When the City Council allegedly paused its own tax work the second the union petition launched, you need expensive lawyers to paper over the coordination.
The early payment timeline shows a deliberately assembled professional infrastructure right from the start: Olson Remcho on January 2, Goco Partners on January 7, AdMail Express on January 9, Deane & Company on January 14, and The Lew Edwards Group on January 16.
The consultant class that cashed checks and still lost:
Catherine Lew’s firm, The Lew Edwards Group, received $37,500 in five monthly $7,500 campaign-consulting payments (coded CNS) from January 16 through May 14, 2026. The gold-standard tax measure operation. 95% win rate. $38.5 billion in taxes passed across California. They were at the strategic helm.
They lost in Oakland.
Even their elite polling and messaging couldn’t overcome the fact that voters have lived through the last round of these promises. Measure NN sold hard on 700 police officers. Active staffing sat at 610, with only around 509 fully operational. Money got redirected into the black hole. The “execution gap” wasn’t theory — it was the lived reality that made the new fear-mongering ring completely hollow.
Then there’s consultant Jim Ross, the veteran labor operative who did the post-mortem rounds. He said it out loud: the “fire stations will close,” “911 will collapse” threats are “played out.” “If you get threatened enough and nothing bad happens, maybe you lose some credibility.”
The fear merchants admitted their core product is losing potency. That’s the machine confessing the old software is buggy as hell. – at Oakland, CA
The union grift and corporate hedge:
This wasn’t small-dollar democracy. The donor list was pure institutional self-preservation:
• IAFF Local 55 PAC: $115k (plus national FIREPAC money). Union president Seth Olyer and spokesperson Jose Sanchez were the public face — because their stations and dues base were directly on the line.
• California Nurses Association: $50k.
• Kaiser and Sutter Health: $50k combined. Corporate healthcare writing checks to stabilize a 911 system their preferred policies helped break.
• SEIU Local 1021 Issues PAC: $225,000 and other SEIU entities, plus IFPTE Local 21 Issues PAC $90k — using member resources to lock in revenue so the bureaucracy never has to reform.
At least 84% of identifiable 2026 contributions came from labor unions or labor-sponsored committees. These are the same interests that have run Oakland for years. When the general fund couldn’t cover their priorities, they engineered a dedicated stream. Classic machine behavior dressed up as “public safety.”
The real estate reckoning and the brutal efficiency gap:
The opposition (“Neighbors for an Affordable Oakland”) raised over $279k — with major checks from the National Association of Realtors ($100k), California Association of Realtors ($75k), and Carmel Partners ($48k+). They finally mobilized because the tax structure would have hammered already distressed properties. The machine created the conditions destroying asset values, then acted shocked when owners fought back with real money.
Cost per vote math (documented spending):
Yes side (main committee): $1.1 million+ to “secure” 48,741 Yes votes → roughly $23.90 per Yes vote.
No side: ~$279k to help deliver 57,379 No votes → roughly $7.32 per No vote.
The machine spent more than three times as much per vote it “bought” — and still got crushed on efficiency and outcome. Paid signatures, heavy mail, legal defense tied to their own collusion allegations, premium consultants… and the product was defective.
Barbara Lee tied her wagon to the machine and got stranded:
Mayor Barbara Lee made this central to her early administration. After the loss she pivoted fast to “philanthropic investments and public-private partnerships.” The labor coalition she needed just took a direct hit. The blank check didn’t arrive.
The machine is breaking:
This wasn’t random. It was years of the same playbook — exploit loopholes, outsource signatures to paid pros, flood mailboxes, lean on fear, count on labor muscle and institutional inertia — finally hitting a wall.
The Alameda County Taxpayers Association (ACTA) lawsuit (alleging collusion and records games to game the supermajority rules) didn’t need to win in court to do damage. It just confirmed what a lot of people already suspected: insiders arranging the outcome they wanted.
Catherine Lew’s firm. Jim Ross. Deane & Company. Goco Partners. Olson Remcho. The union political operations. These are the names and firms that ran the Yes on Measure E effort and LOST. They cashed the checks, deployed the tricks, and still got beaten by a tighter, more targeted opposition that actually connected with voter frustration instead of trying to buy the outcome.
Oakland voters looked at the price tag, the track record (Measure NN’s police staffing failure), the paid petitioners from Vegas, the Sacramento address, the consultant admissions, and the real-world results… and said enough.
The old guard just got a very expensive, very public lesson. The machine is rusting. The fear playbook is losing its grip. And the people who treat the city as a revenue cow and jobs program just got reminded that voters can still say NO.
Pay attention. The cost of running the same tired grift just went up.
StopMeasureE.com – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
Oakland unions spent (wasted) over $1 million pushing Measure E.
It failed.
Their members must be PISSED!
NO on Measure E retweeted
She got told no on a tax increase, so now she’s trying to bribe the council for more power. 👇 – at Oakland, CA
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee is trying to BRIBE her way to more power.
The November Charter SCAM measure includes massive pay raises for City Councilmembers in exchange for handing her VETO power over the budget and legislation. While your neighborhoods lose the ability to fight back against cuts to parks, streets, and local services, the people who are supposed to represent you get financially rewarded for going along with it.
Oakland just rejected a tax increase for the first time in 15 YEARS because voters have had enough of Barbara Lee’s failed leadership. Now she is asking you to give her even more control, and quietly paying off the council to accept the deal.
This is the Oakland Charter Scam.
NO on Measure E retweeted
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee is trying to BRIBE her way to more power.
The November Charter SCAM measure includes massive pay raises for City Councilmembers in exchange for handing her VETO power over the budget and legislation. While your neighborhoods lose the ability to fight back against cuts to parks, streets, and local services, the people who are supposed to represent you get financially rewarded for going along with it.
Oakland just rejected a tax increase for the first time in 15 YEARS because voters have had enough of Barbara Lee’s failed leadership. Now she is asking you to give her even more control, and quietly paying off the council to accept the deal.
This is the Oakland Charter Scam. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
They spent over $1 million dollars trying to pass this btw
NO on Measure E retweeted
Oakland is headed toward bankruptcy on Barbara Lee’s watch.
In her own May 2026 budget, she admitted the city is “chronically financially distressed” with costs growing faster than revenues and service levels “unacceptable.” She then pushed Measure E — a $34 million-a-year tax — as her big solution. Voters rejected it 54% to 46%, the first Oakland tax defeat in 15 years.
Instead of delivering real reforms on spending, pensions, or growing the tax base, she cast the tie-breaking vote to put a “strong mayor” power grab on the November ballot — expanding her control while the structural deficit keeps climbing toward $115–130 million per year.
This is who is leading Oakland toward bankruptcy. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
The full breakdown — the exact provisions, the vote breakdown, the suppressed alternative, the pay math, and the corruption risks — is at
OaklandPowerGrab.com
Read it. Share it. This is the clearest self-dealing ballot measure Oakland has seen in decades. They’re not even hiding it anymore.
If you’re tired of being governed by people who treat your neighborhoods as afterthoughts and your tax dollars as their personal compensation fund, this is the line.
The measure goes down in November or Oakland loses what little local representation it still has. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
On June 16, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee used her tie-breaking vote to force a ballot measure onto November’s ballot that does two things at once:
It gives her unilateral veto power over the budget and legislation.
And it quietly bribes City Councilmembers with massive pay raises in exchange for their support.
This wasn’t reform. It was a transaction.
The measure requires councilmembers to work full-time and bans outside employment. Then it hands the Public Ethics Commission the power to benchmark their salaries against “comparable” full-time cities like Los Angeles — where council pay already exceeds $245,000. That’s a potential 125% raise from the current ~$114k. Total compensation with benefits could push past $300k.
They wrote the rules so the only way councilmembers get the big paycheck is if they vote to hand the Mayor line-item veto power and turn themselves into a reactive oversight body with no real budget authority. If she keeps just three loyal votes on the council, she becomes a functional dictator over spending in every neighborhood.
This is the deal.
Her hand-picked Charter Reform Working Group — the same one that suppressed the cleaner, less corrupt Council-Manager alternative — delivered exactly what she wanted. Four councilmembers had the courage to vote against putting it on the ballot. She overrode them with her tie-breaker to ram through her own power expansion.
While Oakland voters were rejecting her $192 parcel tax Measure E in June because they no longer trust City Hall with money, she was engineering a permanent pay hike for politicians and a structural power grab that lets one person defund district projects at will.
This isn’t about fixing government. It’s about consolidating it.
Barbara Lee has spent months talking about “accountability.” What she actually delivered is a system where the Mayor writes the budget, vetoes legislation, and controls the administrative apparatus — while the people who are supposed to check her power get financially incentivized to look the other way.
The same Mayor whose private fundraising from contractors and interests doing business with the city already raises conflict questions now wants even more unchecked authority over those same contracts and budgets.
Oakland doesn’t have a structure problem. It has a leadership and trust problem. Voters just proved they won’t keep writing blank checks for failing services. So instead of fixing the services, City Hall rewrote the rules to give itself more power and more money. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
Pledge to vote NO and protect our community at StopGroceryTax.com
Share this with every neighbor coworker and friend in Oakland and Alameda County who has had enough of outside experiments that raise the cost of living. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
Right now national activists are pushing a $30 Grocery Tax in Oakland and Alameda County while pretending it is some kind of gift to workers.
California already tried something smaller last year when fast food wages went to $20. Prices for groceries and restaurant meals jumped 3.3% to 3.6% almost immediately and nearly 18,000 jobs disappeared according to new economic research.
Voters across the whole state rejected even an $18 minimum wage increase in 2024. They knew it would make life more expensive when families were already stretched thin.
Now they want something far bigger right here in our neighborhoods. Grocery stores independent restaurants daycares and local shops will see their costs nearly double. Those costs will not stay on the businesses. They will hit you at the register with higher prices lost hours and more closed doors.
Oakland is still fighting to recover from record vacancies and post pandemic struggles. This measure will make recovery even harder for the small businesses and working families who actually live here.
They are out circulating petitions right now.
If someone asks you to sign say no. – at Oakland, CA
NO on Measure E retweeted
While Oakland is drowning in crime, homelessness, open drug markets, and facing BANKRUPTCY, Mayor Barbara Lee is busy trying to rewrite the city charter to give herself more power.
Tonight she broke a tie vote to put her “strong mayor” power grab on the November ballot — expanding her control over day-to-day operations and giving herself VETO power over the council.
She claims it’s about “accountability,” but the truth is clear: the buck stops with her, and she’s FAILED. Now she wants to change the rules so she has even more control while the city burns.
We’re building the official coalition right now to kill this power grab and stop this failed mayor from rewriting the rules to protect herself while Oakland suffers.
More information coming soon.
mercurynews.com/2026/06/16/o… – at Oakland, CA
