Dellums Ahead in Oakland Campaign

Former Rep. Ron Dellums clung to the prospect of an outright win in the Oakland mayor’s race Wednesday, but thousands of outstanding ballots could force him into a runoff with longtime City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente.

The spirited contest underscored Oakland’s shifting demographics and the craving for a unifying vision in a city battered by a high murder rate and a school system in state receivership.

De La Fuente, a Mexican-born labor leader who first won office by literally sweeping every street in his district, had been considered next in line to lead the city, which has never had a Latino mayor. But the unexpected candidacy of the iconic Dellums energized many African Americans and others who felt left behind by current Mayor Jerry Brown’s pro-development policies.

Whether or not he is forced into a November runoff, analysts predicted Wednesday that Dellums, 70, would ultimately land at the city’s helm 3 1/2 decades after the antiwar movement propelled him to Washington.

“He has virtually won it,” said San Francisco State University political science professor Robert Smith, attributing Dellums’ showing to hometown hero status “that lifted him above the ordinary,” and an inspirational focus on “civic vision and a new way of thinking about democracy.”

Elsewhere in the state, dozens of issues vied for approval on local ballots.

In a predicted landslide, more than 82% of the voters in Kern County decided to force Los Angeles and other cities to get rid of their sewage sludge elsewhere.

For 12 years, Los Angeles has dumped virtually all of its sewage sludge at a farm it owns near Bakersfield.

Los Angeles has lined up Arizona farms willing to accept the processed human waste, but at a greater cost to taxpayers.

Before that happens, city sanitation officials have said they plan to sue Kern County, contending that the use of sludge as fertilizer on Green Acres Farm near Bakersfield is both safe and legal. Meanwhile, state Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) told supporters he was delighted that his county had so soundly defeated the people he called “the sludge peddlers.”

“Kern County has itself a bumper crop of common sense,” he said.

In Humboldt County, residents angered by outside companies pouring money into local elections voted 55% to 45% in favor of a measure to prohibit such donations.

At issue most recently was a failed 2004 attempt to recall Dist. Atty. Paul Gallegos, who sued the Pacific Lumber Co. for alleged fraud. Texas-based Maxxam Corp., Pacific Lumber’s parent company, responded with a campaign to oust Gallegos.

Opponents contended that the measure would unfairly stifle companies with legitimate interests in local causes and candidates. Legal experts have said that it almost certainly will be challenged on constitutional grounds. In Eureka, Humboldt County’s largest city, it may face a test shortly in a contentious plan to build a Home Depot on a parcel beside the city’s waterfront.

Gallegos, who lost his suit against Pacific Lumber, was reelected on Tuesday.

A bid to split Santa Barbara County in two lost by a huge margin, with more than 82% of voters opting for the status quo.

The measure originated in the agricultural north, where many residents had long felt victimized by county environmental and development restrictions. However, it lost steam when a study concluded that the new Mission County would begin life $30 million in the red. In Oakland, Dellums needs more than 50% of votes to win outright. With all precincts counted, he had 50.1% to De La Fuente’s 33.1%. But at least 3,500 late absentee ballots and an unknown number of provisional ballots might not be counted for several days. Trailing with 12.9% was Councilwoman Nancy Nadel, whose supporters were expected to lean toward Dellums, making the prospect of De La Fuente succeeding in a runoff remote, Smith and others said.

De La Fuente said a runoff was “entirely possible” with so many ballots outstanding and that five more months of campaigning would paint a starker contrast between the two candidates. “People will have a chance to really request more specific responses and plans,” he said. “That’s where we are stronger.”

In campaigning, De La Fuente took a tough-on-crime approach, while Dellums spoke more of the need to offer opportunity and support for youth, calling Oakland a place of “great poverty, dislocation and lack of hope.”

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Romney reported from San Francisco, Chawkins from Ventura.