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The longtime District One (North Oakland) representative on the Oakland Unified School District board confirmed that she is not running for re-election but denied rumors that she is running for the Oakland At-Large City Council seat. 

“I’m not saying this is ‘it’ for another political race,” Kerry Hamill said by telephone this week. “If a good opportunity presented itself, I would run for something else.”  

But as for At-Large Council, “I’m not considering it,” she said. 

The rumor about Hamill was one of many that have been circulating around Oakland for the last week, fueled by the fact that incumbent Henry Chang has not yet announced whether he is running for re-election. Another rumor involved current District Five Councilmember Jean Quan running for the position instead of Chang. 

Hamill said that eight years on the school board were “enough. It’s a huge drain of energy. I would like to spend my time as a volunteer at my kids’ schools rather than at school board meetings. I was a community-involved person before I was elected to the board, and that’s where I’m going to return.” 

Hamill has children at Oakland Technical High School and Claremont Middle School. She has endorsed Oakland parent-activist Jody London for her District One school board seat. Educational philanthropist Brian Rogers is also a candidate to replace Hamill. 

There were no surprises in the early list of filed City Council and OUSD school board candidates released this week by the Oakland City Clerk’s office. 

Incumbents Nancy Nadel (District Three), Ignacio De La Fuente (District Five), and Larry Reid (District Seven) have all filed for re-election, while AC Transit Board member Rebecca Kaplan and Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods co-founder Charles Pine have both filed for the At-Large Council seat. 

In addition, the Oakland City Clerk’s office said that the following candidates—all of whom have been previously reported as running—had picked up candidate packets from the clerk’s office, the first step in the filing process: Patrick McCullough (Council District One), Greg Hodge (Council District Three), Mario Juarez (Council District Five) Clifford Gilmore (Council District Seven), Clinton Killian (Council At-Large) and Jumoke Hinton-Hodge (School Board District Three). 

Delays in making candidate filing lists public this week by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office made it impossible to determine who has filed for the California State Senate and State Assembly seats. 

With Senate President Don Perata termed out of his District 9 senate seat, an anticipated battle has been set up between current District 14 Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) and former District 16 Assemblymember Wilma Chan of Oakland. In addition, former Assemblymember Johan Klehs of San Leandro has also indicated interest in the position. 

A crowded field is expected to announce for Hancock’s District 14 seat: Richmond Councilmember Tony Thurmond, Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington, Berkeley resident Dr. Phil Polakoff, and East Bay Parks District member and former Berkeley City Councilmember Nancy Skinner. 

But despite the fact that filing for the two positions opened up on Monday, the Registrar of Voters office was unable to produce a list of filings by Thursday afternoon, despite several requests. Registrar of Voters staff members said they were compiling the list but could not explain the delay in making it public.