Bauters losing ground in County Supervisor's Race, Now Trailing Bas

 Breaking News

The latest tranche of votes were just released by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters and they show Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters now trailing Nikki Fortunato Bas 68,630 to 68,736 votes in the Alameda County Board of Supervisor's race (district 5).  According to sources in the Bas campaign, a "few more hundreds' of votes still need to be counted.  The County Registrar has not said from what regions within the district the last few votes that remain to be counted are.  Today's tranche leaves Mr Bauters 106 votes short in the 49.96% to 50.04% race.  

Candidate John Bauters Flip-Flops on Recall of County DA

Councilman Bauters Quietly Contradicts Himself on Recall of DA Pamala Price 

He Tells Liberal Democratic Party He Supports the DA and a Conservative Activist Group He Supports Her Recall

Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters reversed his position on the most controversial East Bay topic of this campaign season; the recall campaign against Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, by first publicly supporting the DA and then quietly voicing support for her recall, the turn around done without any new information about the DA having been revealed.  The Tattler recently learned of the surprising 180 degree flip, made in front of a powerful anti-Price activist group from whom he was seeking an endorsement for his November Alameda County Board of Supervisor’s run. 

Alameda County Supervisor Hopeful
John Bauters
He's joined conservatives in calling for
the recall of DA Pamala Price.

At the Alameda County Democratic Party candidate endorsement meeting in January, candidate Bauters, attempting to curry favor, said he was not supportive of the recall attempt then building against the progressive District Attorney.  By September, the tech/crypto currency funded recall campaign had picked up steam and Bauters quietly did an about-face when again, attempting to curry favor, he assured the conservative activist group Empower Oakland, he’s fully supportive of recalling the DA.  He added that he had personally not voted for Ms Price in her election in 2022, a fact he did not share with the Alameda County Democratic Party in January.  During the eight months between those two interviews, nothing newsworthy happened that would explain a total reversal other than a shift in the political winds.  

The Democratic Party supports the DA Pamela Price while the Big Tech funded Empower Oakland group as well as Republicans and corporate Democrats, are calling for her ouster.  It is noteworthy that Empower Oakland also strongly supports the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a dream project of East Bay conservatives.  

The evanescent flip-flop of Council member Bauters on such a serious and informative matter without an explanation has called into question his actual immutable values, to the extent there are any there of any substance.  Normally politicians will explain to their constituents and the press why they did a total turn about on a contentious and publicly impactful issue such as this but Mr Bauters is refusing to answer.  

The Alameda County Democratic Party ultimately did not endorse Mr Bauters or his competitor, the labor backed Nikki Fortunato Bas, but Empower Oakland did endorse him.

As Councilman Bauters shifts his campaign for the Board of Supervisors race into overdrive, some local pols are expressing concern over the gentleman from Emeryville and his appetite for political power.  The whiplash on the District Attorney issue is but one inflection point.  Many have noted Mr Bauters’ lack of truthfulness on the matter of his contrition on his Emeryville record of rolling back the wages of the poorest workers when he attempted to gut Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance in 2019.  Bauters told the Alameda County Democratic Party at the January meeting he regretted his attempt to cut Emeryville’s minimum wage.  He was sitting in the hot seat at the time, seeking their endorsement, telling them something they would want to hear.  Later when in a similar chair at the Empower Oakland candidates endorsement meeting, he told the conservatives there he had no regrets, “It’s hard to point to a vote I’ve taken in recent years I have regret for” he said.  Empower Oakland awarded him their endorsement.

But it’s his contradiction on DA Pamela Price that has everyday Democrats confused.  Is candidate Bauters for or against recalling the DA?  He has said both and he’s never answered for that.  Cynics point to the opportunism that would be Bauters to take if he was simply telling the County Democrats (more left wing) that he’s against the recall to get their endorsement and telling Empower Oakland (more right wing) he’s in favor of the recall to get their endorsement.  The cynics might be right but there’s no way to know for sure because Bauters isn’t saying; he has steadfastly refused to answer our questions on this pressing matter in the public interest.  Councilman Bauters seems to be less concerned with being transparent to the public, his constituents, and more concerned in picking up endorsements.  

Bauters Comes in 2nd, Will Face Nikki Fortunado Bas in November

 Breaking News

Bauters to Face Run Off Election in November

Tonight, with 74 of 74 precincts reporting, Emeryville City Council member John Bauters will be heading to a November run off in his Alameda County Board of Supervisor’s race, having failed to secure enough votes to win the election outright.  Mr Bauters needed to win more than 50% of the vote in northern Alameda County to become the next District 5 Supervisor but he only was able to garner about 20% according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office.  Oakland City Council member Nikki Fortunato Bas will also be in the run off election with Mr Bauters, having secured approximately 27% of the vote today.

The November run off election will now become a do or die for Mr Bauters’ political career as a loss today to secure a greater than 50% victory means he will not be allowed to run for re-election to the Emeryville City Council in November , a race he had announced he planned on making back before Keith Carson, the current District 5 Supervisor suddenly announced last December he would retire upon completion of his current term in November 2024.

The failure to win tonight highlights a real gamble Mr Bauters took when he threw his hat into the ring last December.   If he loses in November, he loses everything and he will go back to just being citizen John Bauters, stripped of all his official political power.  At least until the next election.

Alameda County Supe Candidate John Bauters Presents a 'Tough on Crime' Platform

"Appropriate Punishments" Are Needed to Discourage Criminals Says Bauters

Bauters Broadens His Base in Supervisor Race

By Appealing to the Right Wing 

Flush with cash from corporate donors to his election campaign, candidate for Alameda County Supervisor district 5 and Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters says he wants to increase penalties for criminals as part of his plan to reduce crime in the county.  Mr Bauters said crime is up in general but an area of particular concern for him is the so called 'smash and grab' crime and getting tough on crime is part of his solution, he recently told the League of Woman Voters.

The corporate sector likes the kind of politics that generates tough-on-crime public policy so much they have given generously to Mr Bauters' campaign (a future Tattler story will reveal who is giving how much).  The resulting mutual benefit, rich donors giving to politicians who get them elected to deliver policy the donors want, is revealed by the expensive and now ubiquitous Bauters campaign ads on the internet, especially on YouTube.  People with local IP addresses need only to start watching a YouTube video and there will be a short wait to see a diaphanous and schmaltzy Bauters pop up video.  Stay online longer and it becomes an assault.  Low on content while proliferating in mawkish election campaign clichés, these Bauters video ads join with the mailers everyone's been getting to help spread the message that Mr Bauters wants us to understand: he doesn't like crime. 

But his performance at the League of Woman Voters election forum on February 8th proved more revealing than what can be had on YouTube.  There, Mr Bauters' let slip an informative nugget perhaps meant to be buried from progressives amongst all the progressive verbiage.  Careful listeners however, will note the newsworthy point within a long winded monologue.  Mr Bauters told the viewers at the forum, "We need to assure the legal system has appropriate punishments in place to discourage people from engaging in future criminal behavior."  The set up is that he says there is too much crime in Alameda County and then he gives us the solution: appropriate punishment, more commonly referred to as more jail time for criminals.  This is quite unusual politics for a self described progressive candidate in Alameda County it should be noted. 

The more jail time argument would generally not be a winning argument to make to voters and usually only abashedly Republican candidates present that as a solution to crime.  Knowing that and because the Tattler is not interested in 'gottcha' journalism, we thought perhaps Mr Bauters might have misspoken so we gave him a chance to correct himself but he has waived off all our attempts to correct the record.   So all voters have to go on with this subject are the words from candidate Bauters himself.

It's hard to imagine candidate Bauters wants to run on a 'tough on crime, build more jails' platform but here we are.  We will assume he has made some kind of political calculation that he thinks will work to get him elected.  

The election is on March 5th and out of the nine candidates for district 5 County Supervisor, Mr Bauters pits himself against two other candidates who have also presented tough on crime campaigns - Chris Moore from Piedmont and Trump supporter Gerald Pechenuk.

Below is the entire candidate forum hosted by the League of Woman Voters for the Alameda County Board of Supervisor district 5 race.  Mr Bauters' section on crime is found between 22:30 - 24:04.

Too Conservative for Alameda County Voters: Councilman Bauters Tries To Hide From His Record

 Supe Board Election Quandary:

Alameda County Voters Are More Progressive Than Councilman Bauters

His Anti-Labor, Pro-Corporate Record Vexes

News Analysis

Four days after announcing his re-election campaign for November’s Emeryville City Council election, John Bauters now says he will run for District Five of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, a position that would disallow him to serve on the City Council.  It was not something planned.  The Supervisor seat was suddenly made available in a surprise announcement from the veteran politician Keith Carson, who after 32 years, says he will retire from the post.  

City Councilman John Bauters
He is hoping Alameda County progressive voters
don't check out his record in Emeryville.

The swift pivot away from Emeryville by Bauters reveals where his priorities and loyalty lies.  Although the bigger-than-Emeryville ambitions of our current City Councilman may not be surprising to all, what is baffling is how Mr Bauters, a centrist corporate Democrat by most measures, sees himself fitting in at the seat of power in arguably the most progressive county in California.

The seat Mr Bauters seeks is taken by Mr Carson, a progressive Black man and Berkeley resident who has long time and loyal support from the progressive community in Oakland and Berkeley.  If they knew of his record in Emeryville, it’s unlikely Alameda County progressives would vote for John Bauters.  Indeed, it will be up to Mr Bauters to keep his corporatist, anti-labor record quiet as he accentuates his positives in his soon to be ubiquitous campaign literature. 

Outside of little Emeryville, few know his record:

— Council member Bauters led a drive to roll back the wages of the poorest workers by rewriting City Hall’s landmark minimum wage ordinance.  

— More recently, Mayor Bauters disallowed even a council discussion of a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza brought by Councilman Kalimah Priforce.  

— On the housing front, Bauters has been such a steadfast supporter of the developer lobbying group YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard), it earned him the title of the most YIMBY mayor in the most YIMBY city in California by the San Francisco Chronicle.  YIMBY California, headquartered in Sacramento, lauded Mayor Bauters with their highest praise when they presented him with the coveted “Developer Shill” award.  

— Even in his self congratulatory category of bicycling, Mr Bauters, doing the work of the business community, refused to implement our Bike Boulevard network, putting bikers at risk and disallowing the idea that Emeryville could have quiet streets for bikes (and pedestrians).  Not one of Emeryville’s five bike boulevards has been implemented during his time here on the Council.  His Emeryville record on bikes is pushed down hard enough that when speaking to outsiders, he feels comfortable enough to cast himself as “America’s Bike Mayor” in the Supervisor race. 

          .                .                .

In 2019, working on behalf of the Emeryville business community, Mr Bauters assembled a last minute majority coalition on the City Council to stop the impending implementation of Emeryville’s landmark minimum wage ordinance, depriving the working poor in town of a living wage.  Only by direct action leafleting and a door-to-door petition drive was the Alameda County Labor Council able to mobilize to stop Bauters’ wage roll back legislation.  Raising the minimum wage has proven to be very popular with Emeryville voters despite their pro-business Councilman.

Mr Bauters has also assembled an activist pro-housing developer majority on the Council that has closed off the things Emeryville citizens want, as expressed in their General Plan.  Things that developers could help pay for....like parks.  All must be set aside in order to enable developers to build more market rate rental housing as Mr Bauters himself says.  He states rents will eventually lower, they will trickle down, when we give developers dominion over our housing policy.  In this way, City Hall must never be allowed to constrain corporations that want to maximize profits by building more rental apartment towers he says.  We must sacrifice all to the “housing emergency”, even the building of parks and other things essential to livability, must be sacrificed, he announced.  

What Councilman Bauters fails to mention is that Emeryville has built more market rate housing than any other city in the East Bay.  In fact, every year, for more than twenty years, Emeryville has exceeded its housing requirements as delineated by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).  Mr Bauters lets the actual housing shortage outside of Emeryville’s borders and a little legerdemain serve as rational for not asking developers anything in trade for permission to continue the building boom, done at the citizen’s expense.

But perhaps the most disturbing quality of Bautersian politics is the undue attention he gives forwarding his political narrative, a level of control that he demands and he gets as a result of never being accountable to the people.  Mr Bauters will not answer questions from the public if the questions are tough or tend to put his Council work in a bad light.  He has brought to the Emeryville City Council a new hermetically sealed culture where the public is seen as undeserving of answers to their questions about public policy.  In this regard, Councilman Bauters will not talk to the local press, not by email, phone, text or in person.  He has never held a press conference and public meetings are structured by California’s Brown Act in such a way that questions can never be answered there.  

Unfortunately, this lack of accountability has been infectious: other City Council members are now also following the Bauters directive on silence in the face of public questions; namely members Courtney Welch and Sukhdeep Kaur.  But outside of Emeryville, citizens will likely take umbrage at the prospects of their pols being so cloistered.  Alameda County voters, famous for their insistance on government accountability, will not likely take to a lack answerability at their Board of Supervisors siting down, setting up a possible season of discontent at the Board were Bauters to win.  The idea that a corporatist, anti-labor Democrat taking the seat of Keith Carson may also rub Alameda County voters the wrong way.

The election is  March 5th with a runoff election in November if no candidates get more than 50% in the March vote.  If Mr Bauters were to win a seat on the Board of Supervisors, he would have to vacate his Emeryville City Council seat.

The Board of Supervisors District Five consists of Berkeley, large parts of Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville and parts of Albany.

Council member Bauters did not return calls for this story.