John Bauters: Donations Reveal An Embrace Of His Conservative Side in Supervisor Race

John Bauters' Funding Machine Quietly Milks the Alameda County Right Wing

Corporate Lobbyists, PG&E, Developers, Police, Tech Entrepreneurs Tapped for Donations

Wareham Development Corporation Unloads $15,000 After Favors Granted

News Analysis

November’s Alameda County Board of Supervisor District 5 race has come down to Emeryville City Council member John Bauters, a white male lawyer with law enforcement and corporate backing, pitted against Oakland City Council member Nikki Bas, a woman of color with labor backing.  A conservative white man versus a liberal woman of color; it’s a dynamic that might be seen outside of Emeryville as so normal as to be considered not newsworthy.  But for Mr Bauters, his revelatory list of campaign donors recalls this political campaign stereotype he wants no part of, regardless of its inconvenient truth.  

The race for Supervisor this year is a race between corporate power and working people despite Mr Bauters’ denials against that framing.  Councilman John Bauters loudly says he's a true progressive.  But his actual record on the Emeryville City Council notwithstanding, consider who’s putting up the money in the hotly contested Supervisor race.  On Mr Bauters' side it’s virtually all corporations with a material interest in having a friendly voice on the Supervisors Board.  Them and right wing lobbying groups, tech entrepreneurs, police officer’s associations and the sheriff’s office, as well as corporate Democrats and Republicans.  Ms Bas has the backing of mostly regular Alameda County people (a few wealthy supporters) and labor unions.  With donor lists like those, not surprisingly, the backers of John Bauters have given their candidate more money (over $500,000 so far) than have supporters of Ms Bas.

Emeryville City Council Member
John Bauters

Despite his list of backers, Council member Bauters says he's a liberal.  But the campaign donors know better.  And they know a good investment when they see one.  That’s why Bauters has gotten major donations from PG&E and the pro-developer lobbying group YIMBY California as well as Sacramento’s corporate right wing California Real Estate PAC.  Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs also have given generously to Mr Bauters’ campaign (expecting nothing in return if you believe them) as well as East Bay politicians; the controversial former mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf and Emeryville’s current mayor Courtney Welch, a corporate Democrat who generously gave her Council colleague $1,100 (so far).  

Mr Bauters strongly endorsed and supported Ms Welch for Emeryville City Council despite her only having lived in town for one month when she filed papers to run for the Council in 2021.  Ms Welch is running for re-election to the Council in November and incidentally, some supporters report she is considering seeking higher political office like Mr Bauters is doing instead of a third term on the Council four years from now.

Trolling for law enforcement money, Bauters is framing himself as the law and order candidate in the race and to clinch the deal, he set up an independent expenditure committee called ‘Bauters for a Safer East Bay’ that is independent from his campaign cash and has net almost $60,000 so far.  Bauters has called to lock up criminals with more jail time, a perennial favorite in the law enforcement community.  He has not said how this would be considered progressive.

Oakland City Council President
Nikki Fortunato Bas

But perhaps the most illuminating campaign donation so far this season is the $15,000 given to candidate Bauters by Wareham Development’s CEO Rich Robbins who was granted a major political favor by Councilman Bauters recently.  Robbins applied for a permit to build a major new bio-tech facility on Overland Street in Emeryville but the City Council had earlier certified a General Plan overlay district called the 'transit center transportation hub zone' around the Amtrak station that restricted the number of parking spaces for proposed developments in the zone.  The idea is the City of Emeryville has an interest in getting people to use alternative transportation rather than everyone just driving.  

The Council vote to implement the transportation hub zone was unanimous but Mr Robbins of Wareham said didn’t want to be constrained by the law.  He wanted to maximize profit for his project and he said future tenants at the Overland bio-tech project would all want to be able drive to work and his new building would be worth more money with more parking available.  So overturning the vote of his own handpicked Planning Commission who thought the new law should be obeyed, Councilman Bauters led a drive to give permission to Rich Robbins to build all the extra  parking spaces.  Councilman Bauters never said why Emeryville's new law should be overturned to help a single developer and he refused requests from the Tattler about it.  

In responce (but not officially because that would be illegal), Mr Robbins gave Mr Bauters $15,000 for his County Supervisor race.  The money for Bauters and parking spaces for Robbins was a win-win for Bauters and Robbins but a loser for the people of Emeryville who have a reasonable expectation their city planning laws not be overturned so casually.

In addition to that and more blatantly showing his anti-labor conservative side, Council member Bauters led a drive to roll back the wages of the poorest workers in Emeryville when he attempted to amend Emeryville’s hard fought Minimum Wage Ordinance in 2019.  The Alameda Labor Council successfully pushed back against Bauters' pushing down the minimum wage by rushing a signature drive of Emeryville citizens just in time to stop the Bauters juggernaut.  

That was back when and now, it appears labor groups across the Bay Area have not forgotten John Bauters and they’re actively supporting the candidacy of Nikki Bas in the Supervisor's race.  

Workers don’t have the financial resources of tech billionaires and giant corporate lobbying groups of course and not surprisingly Bauters has raised more money than Bas.  But Ms Bas has the backing of average people and the race is very tight according to polls.

This campaign season, Mr Bauters is attempting to run as a conservative but also not as a conservative and it's been tough for him to clearly message himself, trying to be everything to everybody.  He is trying for the entire Republican voter base, centrist Democrats and if he can pick up some progressive Democrats, so much the better.  

Clearly Councilman Bauters has some liberal ideas on social issues and before this campaign season, he would blanch at the prospects of outright being called 'conservative' or a 'corporate Democrat' but given his list of donors in the Supervisors race, Mr Bauters appears to have finally made peace with the epithets.  Thus the race for Board of Supervisors in left wing Alameda County has taken on the trappings of every other race in America; right versus left, conservative versus progressive.  And that’s a substantial change from the traditional election ruse around here where everybody's a "progressive" and the elections are 'progressive versus progressive'.  Though the conservative title is not something he has been advertising across the county, the voters' choice has been made more clear this election thanks to John Bauters' striking donor list.  

Councilman Bauters' Corporate Campaign Donors Enjoy Beloved Status

 

Tough New Tobacco Regulation Belies Emeryville's Lax Marijuana Regs

Bauters Donor Ohana Cannabis Enjoys Lofted Status

News Analysis

Buoyed by data from the American Cancer Society and a push by Council member John Bauters at the March 19th City Council meeting, the City of Emeryville moved to toughen up its anti-tobacco policies with the introduction of a new ordinance making it a crime to sell tobacco products within 1000 feet of any park, playground or ‘youth oriented facility’ including schools.  Marijuana retailers however, face much less restriction in Emeryville, even though its connection to lung disease including cancer, like tobacco, is undisputed.  A major seller of cannabis in the City, Ohana Cannabis, enjoys a central location on Peladeau Street, directly on one park and less than 1000 feet from at least two other parks, a playground and a school.  Ohana is also a major contributor to Mr Bauters’ election campaigns. 

Large Billboard for Ohana on Powell Street
Legal and perfectly fine for children.

Ohana is a large corporate cannabis retailer with several locations throughout California and has been a major contributor to Mr Bauters’ election campaigns including his current campaign to become an Alameda County Supervisor.  California election campaign law forbids any special treatment towards corporate donors by elected officials of course, but it is noteworthy that Ohana has received very favorable treatment from John Bauters and the City of Emeryville.  

Emeryville has determined that marijuana sales are not appropriate near youth oriented facilities including schools or parks and the municipal code forbids any dispensary to be located within 250 feet.  In 2020 however, Ohana, moving to their current location at 5770 Peladeau Street, requested and received a waiver from Emeryville’s prohibition against dispensaries located near parks.  The City considers the Emeryville Greenway to be a park and Ohana is located directly on the Greenway, specifically the ‘Peladeau Park’ section.  Getting around the 250 foot law and approving the deal, the City Council found, “The Greenway, by its design, is not meant to serve all age groups” and therefore it is unlikely to have children present, according to the October 22nd staff report.  And with that finding the Council approved Ohana for that site. 

Billboards for Tobacco: Illegal
Dangerous for children.

 

The Peladeau Park section of the Greenway, completed in 2018, was built as a “gathering/picnic area with a plaza, pathways, synthetic lawn and play area” according to the City’s website. The City constructed the park with $800,000 in California State Parks and Recreation funds as well as funds from Emeryville's Park and Transportation Impact fees. Nothing was made so as to preclude children from using the park because to do so, Emeryville would run afoul of the law that requires public parks to be made for all people.  

And thus, the power of the business lobby is revealed.

Ohana is using its resources to help it conduct business like many other businesses do.  The law in Emeryville reflects the lobbying efforts of favored businesses and so whereas shops selling tobacco will not be allowed to be within 1000 feet of places where children congregate, marijuana sellers must have a 250 foot buffer and Ohana with its political campaign donations, specifically, no buffer at all.  The children don't have a lobby.  

By law, the money given to Council member Bauters over the years can have no relationship to any favorable treatment of Ohana Cannabis, as everyone knows. 

Council member Bauters did not return calls for this story.