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In an election that could tip the scales in favor of the moderate council minority, more than a dozen City Council candidates appear ready to run for office. 

Filing closed Friday at 5 p.m. for all offices except those where incumbents are not running. So races for Council District 5, the School Board and the Rent Stabilization Board are open until Wednesday at 5 p.m. 

The candidacy of one District 2 candidate, substitute teacher and former mayoral candidate Jon Crowder, is in doubt, however. Crowder may have returned too few valid signatures, City Clerk Sherry Kelly said Monday. The county voter registrar is trying to ascertain whether some of the signatories, who appear not to be registered to vote, may be, in fact be registered voters. 

One of the hardest-fought election battles could be waged in District 2, where liberal/progressive Margaret Breland faces retired postmaster Betty Hicks, whom moderate faction leader Mayor Shirley Dean has endorsed. 

Breland has won the endorsement of the traditionally progressive faction, including Rep. Barbara Lee (d-Oakland), Assembly member Dion Aroner, Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Councilmember Linda Maio, School Board President Joaquin Rivera and School Board Member Terry Doran. Former mayor Loni Hancock has also thrown her support to Breland. 

Hicks has picked up Dean’s support and also has the backing of some of those who have long been involved in the San Pablo Neighborhood Council, although the council itself does not make political endorsements. Kermit Bayless, president of the San Pablo Park Neighborhood Council, has endorsed Hicks, as has Thelette Bennett, vice principal at Longfellow School. 

The two other District 2 candidates appear unaligned with either of the two major factions. 

Pastor Carol Hughes-Willoughby, vice chair of the city’s Human Welfare Community Action Committee is also a District 2 candidate. She was the first to sign up to make a run for any office. Another District 2 candidate is Gina Sasso, mailing services manager and computer consultant, who has run for the office previously. 

If Crowder is permitted to run, he will be the fifth candidate in that district. 

Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek’s list of endorsers are similar to Breland’s. They include Lee, Aroner, Hancock Maio, Breland and Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Margaret Breland, Rent Board Member Max Anderson, former school board member Barbara Lubin and a number of other commissioners. 

Shirek will face James Peterson, a housing developer and business consultant who, ironically, is Shirek’s appointee on the Zoning Adjustment’s board. She’ll also face Marcella Crump-Williams, an unemployed federal employee and block captain for the 63rd Street Neighborhood Watch.  

Dean has not made an early endorsement in this race. 

In District 6, Dean ally Betty Olds is supported by the mayor and School Board members Pamela Doolan and Shirley Issel and notables, Orville Schell, journalist, Chang Lin Tien, former UC Berkeley chancellor, Dennis Kuby, former president of the Chamber of Commerce and Thom Seaton, former president of Congregation Beth El. 

Olds is challenged by Eleanor Pepples, a strategic development analyst and Norine Smith, co-founder of Citizens for Responsible Planning. 

Following the announcement by Councilmember Diane Woolley that she would not seek re-election, a number of candidates have surfaced in District 5. They are Mark Fowler, a notary public and start-up business consultant, AC Transit Director Miriam Hawley, Benjamin Rodefer, an art dealer and Thomas Kelly, a grants coordinator. These candidates need to return election documents by Wednesday.