Features

Hamill Files Papers for Oakland Council Seat

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday March 14, 2008

District One Oakland School Board member Kerry Hamill ended one part of the suspense in the June 3 Oakland election, filing her papers late Wednesday afternoon for the at-large Oakland City Council seat being vacated by incumbent Henry Chang. 

Filing for all Oakland City Council and Oakland School Board races has now closed. 

Signatures on Hamill’s petitions are now being looked over by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office to see if there are enough valid ones for her to qualify. Each Oakland candidate for both at-large and district elections are required to turn in the names of 50 registered voters who support their candidacy. 

That is the case for the fifth at-large candidate, senior citizen activist, former Community Police Advisory Board member and retired U.S. postal worker Frank Rose, who took out filing papers only after filing was extended for five days, and also turned them in on late Wednesday. 

If their signatures and other filing information are approved, Hamill and Rose will join three other candidates for the at-large seat, all of whom have qualified: retired IT professional and public safety activist Charles Pine, attorney Clinton Killian, and AC Transit At-Large Board Member Rebecca Kaplan. 

In the Oakland School Board District One race to succeed the outgoing Hamill, the Oakland City Clerk’s office announced that the daughter of author Ishmael Reed, writer/editor Tennessee Reed, has qualified to run. The Daily Planet earlier reported erroneously that Reed was not running after the clerk’s office sent out a list of filed candidates that did not include Reed’s name.