Quan, Challenger Seek LGBT Support

Oakland's mayor's race is just over a year away, but incumbent Mayor Jean Quan and one of her challengers were shoring up LGBT support during the city's fourth annual Pride festival last weekend.

At an inaugural Pride breakfast Sunday, September 1, Quan told the nearly 100 people in attendance that the event was a way to celebrate the city's diversity.

"Oakland is a city where innovation and change is happening," she said.

Among those in attendance was Joe Tuman, who hopes to oust Quan from the mayor's office next year. Tuman, who came in fourth in 2010, said he's learned from his first campaign and got into the race a lot earlier this time.

"I learned you can't win a race in 11 weeks with $80,000," he told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview. "I've got to raise all the money and come in early and we've done that."

Tuman shrugged when breakfast host Michael Colbruno, a Quan appointee to the Port Commission and her re-election co-chair, told the crowd that the mayor "is not new to this cause" of LGBT rights.

"She has always fought for those who are disenfranchised," Colbruno added.

The implicit suggestion was that Tuman was new to the issue, but he said he understood Colbruno was "doing his job."

"I wasn't aware it was a political event for her," he added.

Tuman, who chairs the communications studies department at San Francisco State University, also was formerly an analyst on KPIX TV. He said he "absolutely" supports marriage equality. And he was planning to attend the Pride festival later on Sunday as he has in previous years.

"I enjoy it, it's lots of fun," Tuman said, adding that events like the Pride festival "correct the perception that it's not a safe city."

But next year's election likely won't be won solely on who supports LGBT rights. The city's stubbornly high crime rate and a revolving door of police chiefs have left many residents frustrated and eager for solutions. Quan's popularity took a dive with her handling of the Occupy protests two years ago, and hasn't rebounded.

Tuman, the most serious announced challenger to date, doesn't have experience in public office.

He said that he wasn't sure why Quan was conducting a search for a new police chief when the Oakland Police Department is operating under a negotiated settlement agreement that has a court-appointed monitor overseeing the department who has the authority to demote or fire the chief. Interim police Chief Sean Whent has been on the job since May.

Quan told the B.A.R. that she probably won't officially kick off her re-election campaign until January. She said that money for more police academies is "in the pipeline" and that Cease Fire, a program that works with offenders and offers them help, has yielded results. Arrests have been made in other cases, she said.

Tuman worked the room, stopping to chat with people as he wasn't given an opportunity to speak during the breakfast, which was sponsored by the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, the California Nurses Association, and Comcast.

Colbruno touted Quan as "America's hardest working mayor," but when asked by the B.A.R., he couldn't provide a source for that statement. It does appear on Quan's re-election website, though it's not attributed to anyone.

Bryan Parker, another Quan-appointed member of the Port Commission, is also a candidate for mayor; he did not attend the breakfast.