Kernighan Elected to Oakland City Council with 70% of the Voters Against Her

Oakland, CA. May 17, 2005 – With Seventy Percent of the voters against her, Pat Kernighan and democracy? has won the special district 2 election in Oakland, CA. The Perata/Brown machine can be happy tonight that they can manipulate further control of Oakland in an election where an overwhelming majority of the voters rejected the machine backed candidate.

Pat Kernighan says that she is “very happy with the vote.” I’ts just too bad that most of the voters in District 2 are not very happy with the results. Of course corporate interests, the Perata/Brown Machine and the generally out of touch with the community City Council can celebrate. Why would they care about the needs of the community. The big money interests won and so did the smear campaign led by Kernighan.

Actually, this vote shows the weakness of the machine and that the community is looking for an alternative. 70% of the voters wanted an alternative to the machine.

Since it is very unlikely we will see anything remotely progressive coming out of Kernighan’s office, we can expect her to face strong opposition in the future. She is corporate politics at its very best and the people are fed up with it.

Congratulations, Pat, you have been put in office but don’t for a minute think you’ve won the support of the voters of District 2.