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Throughout the 20th century, the principal job of Oakland\u2019s mayor was to mediate among different and often competing interests in the city \u2014 business leaders, industry bosses, unions, Black migrants, landlords, renters, neighborhood groups, even the Ku Klux Klan<\/a>. The factional conflicts shifted as the makeup of the city changed, but the essential role of the mayor remained more or less the same: to broker among power blocs in a growing Oakland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not the job that former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and eight other candidates are vying for in next month\u2019s special election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deindustrialization, disinvestment, and a shrinking tax base starting in the 1970s changed the way mayoral politics are conducted. Industries aren\u2019t locally owned anymore, \u201cso across the country, mayors are put in the position of being salespersons for their cities to try to attract investments,\u201d said Chris Rhomberg, a sociologist at Fordham University and author of No There There: Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland<\/em>. \u201cIt has changed the function of local government to be more entrepreneurial while at the same time trying to protect quality of life for local residents.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the words of Marcia Fudge, one of Lee\u2019s colleagues in the House of Representatives, \u201cYou have to be a cheerleader for your city,\u201d to be an effective mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You also have to understand the minutiae of city government, how it works, and how it\u2019s broken. And you have to focus on solving the most hyper-local kinds of problems \u2014 think potholes, crime, illegal dumping, and homeless camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In her campaign to replace recalled Mayor Sheng Thao, Lee, 78 years old, has faced lots of questions \u2014 particularly from her main rival, former councilmember Loren Taylor \u2014 about whether her time in Congress is relevant to the work of running a city. The next mayor will have to pull Oakland out of a massive budget deficit and restore confidence in a local government that seems to have spent much of the past year in a hail of subpoenas and never quite sealed deals<\/a> to bail out the city\u2019s finances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, Lee\u2019s attempt to trade a congressional seat for the mayor\u2019s office has evoked some unflattering comparisons<\/a> to Lee\u2019s own mentor, Ron Dellums, the former member of Congress who was elected mayor in 2006. Dellums was viewed by many Oaklanders as a heroic statesman on foreign policy and domestic issues like poverty and health care, though according to some accounts, he struggled to get a handle on Oakland\u2019s most basic problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the evolution of the mayor\u2019s role in recent decades suggests a different question about Lee\u2019s experience: Did her time as a legislator prepare her to be the city\u2019s cheerleader-in-chief?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never miss a story.<\/strong> Sign up for The Oaklandside\u2019s free daily newsletter.<\/strong>Email<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Jean Tutt ran her first political campaign as a 15-year-old at San Fernando High School \u2014 to become an actual cheerleader. No Black student had ever been chosen, so she turned to the NAACP for help in changing the selection rules to allow the entire student body to vote for the squad. Lee was selected and became the school\u2019s first Black cheerleader. It wouldn\u2019t be the last time she blazed a trail and faced a backlash for it<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=ashleynmcb&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=e30%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1722408789218152758&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Foaklandside.org%2F2025%2F03%2F25%2Fbarbara-lee-oakland-mayor-congress-experience%2F&sessionId=99165e0d136684a785a8509b1fc40dd05d33036c&siteScreenName=Oaklandside&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Lee spent the majority of her political career in Congress, she got her start working for Shirley Chisholm\u2019s presidential campaign in the early 1970s while a student at Mills College. Lee, who at the time was a leader of the Black Student Union and a volunteer with the Black Panther Party, has referred to Chisholm as her mentor<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee went on to intern for Dellums on the Hill, eventually becoming his chief of staff. In 1990, she entered the California State Assembly, becoming the first African American woman to be elected to the state legislature from Northern California. That experience of being \u201cthe only one\u201d meant she had to become more savvy in bridging differences, Lee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had to make sure that my perspective was understood by people who did not look like me or had the same kind of history and experience, in order to represent everyone,\u201d she told The Oaklandside. \u201cBeing the only one required me to be able to respect everyone else\u2019s point of view, but to also bring people together to support what I needed them to support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During her time with the Chisholm campaign, she met Sandre Swanson, a political consultant. Swanson also worked for Ron Dellums and served as Lee\u2019s chief of staff for the first five years she was in Congress. Swanson was also a state assemblymember from 2006 to 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Responding to constituents and solving their problems was a big focus of her time in Congress, Swanson said. During the housing crisis in the mid to late-2000s, residents would come to her office asking for help negotiating with banks attempting to foreclose on their homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t lawyers, but we were able to call the bank directly and talk to government affairs people, let them know we were looking over their shoulders, and got them to reconsider foreclosure on some properties in Oakland,\u201d Swanson told The Oaklandside. \u201cYears later, people would walk up to her in Oakland and say, \u2018You helped save my house.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her office would get involved with Social Security disputes and missing disability payments. Even when someone showed up who didn\u2019t live in her district, staff had a policy of never turning anyone away, Swanson said, an attitude he thinks she would bring to the mayor\u2019s office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee served in Congress for 27 years, stepping down this January. She introduced more than 600 pieces of legislation, but only 33 made it out of the House<\/a> and only 3 became law. This record has led some to criticize Lee, saying she\u2019s shown moral leadership but has rarely been the author of major bills that have improved the lives of Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, she was a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which holds the government\u2019s purse strings, allowing her to influence legislation and federal spending, and she chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. According to GovTrack<\/a>, an independent analyst of congressional activity, Lee consistently ranked high among members of the House in cosponsoring bills, gaining cosponsors, and working to reach agreements with the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most famously, in 2001, she cast the lone vote in either chamber of Congress against giving the Bush administration broad authorization to wage war in Afghanistan. It was, Lee wrote in 2021<\/a>, \u201cthe most difficult vote I\u2019ve cast in my career in Congress.\u201d For her troubles, she got insults and death threats and required a 24-hour security detail. But it established her reputation as one of the most courageous politicians on the Hill, said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who represents Kansas City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is nobody in Congress whose spine is as steely as Barbara Lee\u2019s,\u201d Cleaver told The Oaklandside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cleaver was elected mayor of Kansas City prior to his time in the House of Representatives and served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus immediately following Lee\u2019s term. When Lee mentioned to him that she was considering running for mayor of Oakland, he encouraged her, he told The Oaklandside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s not going to be afraid to get into some of the most controversial but significant issues in the community,\u201d Cleaver said. \u201cShe\u2019s been in the position of having to convince others and bring people along who were just mildly in support of something she wanted. That\u2019s why she kept getting position after position in the Democratic caucus in Washington. Everybody wanted to have a piece of Barbara Lee because of her ability to follow through and work hard.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee was elected unanimously as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cleaver noted. There weren\u2019t many issues that split the caucus during her term, he recalled. \u201cThat, in and of itself, is major,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee\u2019s time as chair coincided with the first two years of Barack Obama\u2019s presidency \u2014 when he was facing vehement and at times racist<\/a> opposition from Republicans. She made sure to gin up support for Obama\u2019s policies among the caucus at the time, Lee said in a 2019 talk<\/a>. During the fight for the Affordable Care Act, one of the most consequential bills in recent decades, she helped form the Quad Caucus, which included the Black, Hispanic, Asia-Pacific American, and progressive caucuses, to drive support for the health care act and ensure their priorities, like addressing racial health disparities and providing a public option, were included. Lee went to meet with the president at the White House to discuss the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[I said] \u2018We have over 110 votes, Mr. President. We want it all.\u2019 And he said, \u2018You bring me the votes, you got it all,\u2019\u201d Lee recalled<\/a> in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years after Lee\u2019s vote dissenting against the invasion of Afghanistan, Lee worked with President George Bush on the President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which she coauthored. The initiative funds research, treatment, and prevention of HIV\/AIDS. To date, it has saved more than 25 million lives, largely in sub-Saharan Africa. It\u2019s one of Lee\u2019s proudest accomplishments. Continuation of the program could be at risk<\/a> under the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGeorge Bush didn\u2019t agree with me and I didn\u2019t agree with him on much of anything. But we found a way to work together,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThere are many examples of that throughout my work both legislatively and as a member of the Appropriations Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During her mayoral campaign, Lee has touted her record of bringing in billions of dollars to Oakland in federal funding for expanding the Port of Oakland, supporting clean air initiatives in West Oakland, programs with the city\u2019s Department of Violence Prevention, assistance aid during COVID, investments in transit upgrades, parks, and arts and community organizations. Elihu Harris, a former mayor of Oakland, told The Oaklandside, \u201cHer focus has always been on bringing resources back to Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In forums and other public talks, Lee has pointed to her relationships with other legislators and committed to working with other institutions and private funding streams to bring more investments and philanthropy to Oakland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While those skills are useful for Congress, being a mayor is a bit different, said Jim Ross, an Oakland-based political consultant who is not involved in Lee\u2019s campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re a member of Congress, you take what your constituents are worried about and go advocate for that in Congress. In a city like Oakland, something we\u2019re desperate for is someone to lead the city toward solving problems,\u201d he said. \u201cThe skillset of a member of Congress can easily translate. It\u2019s just a matter of recognizing that the job of the mayor is to lead, where the job of a member of Congress is to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as Ross also pointed out, the mayor\u2019s ability to lead is circumscribed in Oakland<\/a> \u2014 not just by the tightening economic conditions of the city but also by its own charter. Under the Town\u2019s unique form of governance, the mayor has some influence but doesn\u2019t run city departments (the city administrator does that) or have final say on the budget (that\u2019s the City Council\u2019s role). The result is that the mayor, in addition to being a cheerleader who encourages outside investment, has to be something of a legislator, too, persuading councilmembers to get on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Oakland, you have to persuade a majority of the City Council to go along with you to get anything done. That\u2019s what legislators do,\u201d Ross said. \u201cIn Oakland, it\u2019s really much more of a legislative and persuasive role, being mayor, than you would find in some other cities which are much more administrative and executive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcia Fudge knows all about that. Before representing Cleveland in Congress, she served as mayor of Warrensville Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. From 2021 to 2024, Fudge was secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. One of the more essential functions of a mayor, she said, is making people feel good about living in their city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have to\u2026promote the city so people understand why it\u2019s a great place to be,\u201d Fudge said. \u201cThat, [Lee] is very good at. She\u2019s one of the best cheerleaders I know. And you have to make sure you\u2019re leading in a way that makes people want to follow. And she is very good at that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee\u2019s campaign, coming as it has in the aftermath of a mayoral recall and the reelection of President Trump, has not gone in for a lot of the rah-rah stuff. But sometimes the old cheerleader in her makes an appearance. At The Oaklandside\u2019s Feb. 26 mayoral forum, candidates were asked why they wanted such an impossible and thankless job. Others spoke darkly of the present crisis in Oakland, of being \u201cfed up with the situation in the city,\u201d of watching \u201cthe sanctity of human life be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee was sunnier. \u201cI don\u2019t think that being mayor of Oakland is an impossible thankless job,\u201d she said. \u201cI recognize the challenges, but I also recognize the opportunities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n ashley@oaklandside.org<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley McBride writes about education equity for The Oaklandside. Her work covers Oakland\u2019s public district and charter schools. Before joining The Oaklandside in 2020, Ashley was a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and the San Francisco Chronicle as a Hearst Journalism Fellow. In 2024, Ashley received the California School Board Association’s Golden Quill Award, which recognizes fair, accurate, and insightful reporting on public schools. Ashley earned her master\u2019s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and holds a certificate in education finance from Georgetown University.More by Ashley McBride<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lee faces lots of questions about whether her time in Congress makes her a good fit for a city facing budget troubles and a loss of confidence in City Hall. by\u00a0Ashley McBride March 25, 2025 (Oaklandside.com) Throughout the 20th century, the principal job of Oakland\u2019s mayor was to mediate among… Continue reading \u2018Being the only one\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Advocacy versus leadership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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ASHLEY MCBRIDE<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n