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Incoming At-Large Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said that hard work by volunteers and supporting organizations was the key to her victory in last week’s runoff election. 

“It’s still pretty surreal,” Kaplan said of her election. “And beautiful. And cool. But I’m well aware that I didn’t do it all myself.” 

Kaplan beat retiring Oakland Unified School Boardmember Kerry Hamill by a 62 to 37 percent margin in Tuesday’s election to succeed outgoing At Large Councilmember Henry Chang. Chang chose not to run for re-election this year. 

That volunteer work helped overcome a Hamill advantage in televised advertising, one of the first times local voters have seen such ads in a City Council election. With a decided fundraising advantage over Kaplan for the November runoff, Hamill was able to outspend Kaplan $21,295 to $4,321 in television ads. 

Kaplan said that the television ads were financially possible for both candidates because cable television allows a targeted ad buy for the Oakland market alone, something not possible for broadcast television, where ads must be purchased at a much higher rate for viewing in all of the Bay Area. 

The ads for the two campaigns were identical in one respect—while praising their own candidate, each avoided criticizing the opponent. 

“I definitely think that television ad helped,” Kaplan said. “Hundreds of people stopped me and said that they saw it.” 

Kaplan also said that having the endorsement and support of the Democratic Party “was helpful.” “And to be fair,” she added, “I’ve been doing work around Oakland for years, so I think that people knew me.” 

While praising her own volunteers, who she said did “tons of phone banking” and door-to-door work and operated booths at local fairs, Kaplan discounted what had been another seeming Hamill advantage, the proliferation of Hamill campaign posters throughout many of Oakland’s major thoroughfares. 

“It made it look like (Hamill) had a lot of support,” Kaplan said, “but actually, those signs were mostly put up by paid consultants, and they weren’t on the property of her supporters, but simply along public fences, on abandoned property, and on property without the consent of the owners.” Kaplan said that some Hamill signs were put on property owned by the McDonald’s and Chevron corporations. “It might have been significant if she had the support of McDonalds and Chevron but, of course, she didn’t. The posters were put up to give the illusion of widespread support, but they didn’t reflect actual supporters, which was why she didn’t get a good vote-to-sign ratio.” 

Hamill spent $21,295 in television commercial costs. 

Kaplan also said that having “a lot of widespread endorsers,” including such disparate groups as the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce PAC, the Oakland Black Caucus PAC, the Democratic Party of Alameda County, and several local labor unions, was key to her campaign. “They reflected different constituencies that tend to follow them, and different audiences that they reached,” the victorious candidate said. 

Kaplan said that her next job will be to set up a transition team to prepare for her joining the Oakland City Council in January. “I’m going to have specific teams to work on specific topical areas,” Kaplan said, adding that she would make an announcement on the composition and makeup of the teams later this month. 

Meanwhile, reports turned in by both campaigns to the Oakland city clerk’s office show that Kaplan won even though Hamill outraised her in finance by close to two-thirds.  

Hamill raised $78,636 for the November runoff, $50,386 in the three-month period between July 1 and Sept. 30, and another $28,250 between Oct. 1 and the last reporting date of Oct. 18. Kaplan, on the other hand, raised $49,260 for the November runoff, $33,343 in the three-month period between July 1 and Sept. 30, and another $15,917 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 18. 

Kaplan received major financial support from several union organizations, including $1,300 apiece from the SEIU United Healthcare Workers PAC and the California Nurses Association PAC, $1,200 from the Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21, and $1,100 from the Central Labor Council of Alameda County PAC. Kaplan also received $1,000 from the Oakland Black Caucus PAC, as well as donating $4,020 to her own campaign. 

Hamill received many donations at the $600 individual limit, but her only donation larger than that came in a $1,200 check from the United Administrators of Oakland Schools. Interestingly, Hamill received a $600 contribution from Rogers Family Foundation Executive Director Brian Rogers for the November runoff, even though Hamill supported Rogers’ successful opponent, parent activist Jody London, in the June election to replace Hamill on the Oakland School Board.