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.
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| 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.
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| Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas |
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.
The old adage "Money is the mother's milk of politics" is true today as it was 100 years ago. I suggest that labor unions are just another special interest like all the others. Nikki bass is getting her glass nice and full from SEIU/Local 21 etc.. they expect return on investment
ReplyDeleteOf course labor is a special interest group. They represent the interests of the middle class. Corporations, also a special interest group, represent the interest of the wealthy. The term 'special interest group' may seem pejorative to some but really, it's just an innocuous descriptive term. The negativity comes if a special interest group is perceived as being against the person perceiving it. Because the middle class makes up the majority of people, their interests are more democratic. The converse is true of wealthy people's interests (unless you buy into the 'trickle down' nostrums peddled by plutocrats).
DeleteHe’s a sweetie, but he’s also a lawyer, and unless I’m missing something, there’s very few people in positions of power, who dont eventually get taken. Even when they pretend to NOT get taken, it’s pretend. It’s all a money grab. The whole world here seems to be. No idea what to do about it, or who’s better suited, but it’s almost like it’s all “be design”
ReplyDeleteAs a member of 2 labor unions, I can assure you they absolutely represent the interests of their members -- maximizing salary and wages. Since these same labor unions are negotiating with the same politicians for these terms that they bankrolled in the first place, the conflict and opportunity for corruption is apparent. Just look at Nikki's crown jewel - the City of Oakland with the most dysfunctional staff and high pay - the residents and taxpayers of the City are left holding the bag. High costs and low service.
ReplyDeleteI thank the tattler for this informative story.
DeleteCorporations are no good giving money to politicians and same with unions. The only solution to this is to reverse the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. That means saying NO to Republicans and then we're right back to supporting the Dems, the same political party the unions support. Let's face it, labor interests are American interests by and large. The same can't be said for corporate interests.
Oakland resident here. This is shocking and so true. Conservatives running for political office in the bay area never want to admit they're conservative. So its progressive vs progressive as you are calling it. But not now for Bauters. Thanks to the Tattler for exposing this. I will definitely not be voting for Bauters.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Ms. Welch living in Emeryville subsidized housing? Yet, she is able to donate $1,100 to Mr. Bauter's campaign. I don't know about you, but when I make political contributions, they are more in the $25 to $50 range, which is all I can afford. But cudos to Ms. Welch for leveraging her public position as mayor to the life of luxury and influence.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak to Mayor Welch's personal finances but I can report definitively she receives government assisted housing support as an enrollee in Emeryville's Below Market Rate (BMR) affordable housing program.
DeleteSpouse of an Oakland elected weighing in here. I appreciate the reporting!!
DeleteAs for Welch's donation: Elected officials can legit donate up to the legal limit from their own campaign accounts (funds they raised for their prior campaign but didn't spend). So I don't think her donation is any kind of scandal. If she's not planning to run again soon, she might as well give the funds to folks she supports.
Ms Welch is in the midst of her re-election campaign for Emeryville City Council right now. So while it is true she is able to pull funds out of her campaign account to help Mr Bauters, that would be hurting her own active campaign. Possible, but not likely. However, $1100 is not that much money and she could have saved that much up over time and still be in compliance with the parameters of the BMR program. So I agree, no sign of scandal here...yet.
DeleteRiffing on corporatocracy, we work on the company farm and buy at the company store and when we grow old the company's care facilities rob us of our life's savings, and our children of their inheritances. The mortuary system then robs our death of its dignity. We do have options.
ReplyDeleteGreat reporting
ReplyDeleteThanks for the big news that unions support Bas. Super helpful.
ReplyDeleteHere’s some real reporting on the two candidates:
District 5 – Bauters
Few local officials work as hard or have as much energy as Bauters. He has a track record of influencing meaningful change while earning the respect of his colleagues.
For example, as chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board, he led efforts for some of the nation’s toughest particulate pollution controls for refineries. And he pressed for a management audit of the district, which led to the retirement of its two top executives and a more aggressive stance with industrial polluters, especially in communities of color.
Race and equity policies have been central to Bauters’ policymaking. On the Alameda County Transportation Commission, he has been a strong advocate for public transit and making our roads less car-centric. And on the commission and the Emeryville City Council, Bauters, an avid cyclist, has led efforts for bikeway construction, including the county plan for 400 miles of connected routes.
Meanwhile, Bauters has worked as a lobbyist for the Alliance for Safety and Justice where he has successfully pushed for California criminal justice and social service reforms, including the removal of reentry barriers for ex-prisoners, rental assistance for low-income people at risk of homelessness and screening of children to ensure that they get the mental health care they need.
While he has been an agent of change, he describes his politics as “pragmatic and reasonable.” Bauters has a reputation for showing up well-prepared and as someone who listens and builds coalitions.
Bauters’ opponents
His leading opponents are two other East Bay councilmembers who, unlike Bauters, have advocated for plans that would have effectively gutted their police departments.
Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas has been instrumental in her city’s dysfunctional and failed leadership that has left the Police Department understaffed despite unacceptably high crime rates. She and then-Council President Rebecca Kaplan in 2020 even advocated for cutting the police department budget by 50%, a proposal that was fortunately never carried out.
Thanks for commenting John! But as a City Council member, you really should sign your name and not use ‘anonymous’.
DeleteYes, this story is helpful in that it shows that Ms Bas is the candidate that has the support of labor. Some people, those listening to you, are under the impression that you also support labor. Alameda County, arguably the most left wing county in California, is strongly supportive of labor. Insofar as you are going around telling people that you also support labor, people need to know the facts and this story helps educate people about your actual record on labor in Emeryville. That’s helpful.
Reading your screed, many claims here are false, your bike advocacy canards especially. As you know, during your time on the Emeryville City Council, you refused to conduct the biannual traffic counts for the bike boulevard network (as the General Plan says is to be done). This information is needed because traffic overage is the mechanism that determines the level of traffic volume needed to keep bikers safe. But you stopped the traffic counting and so bicyclists have been put in harms way on the bike boulevards because the City of Emeryville doesn’t know what kind of traffic calming to put and where. I should add that the business community in Emeryville mostly is against traffic calming because they perceive it’s bad for their bottom lines. And it’s the business community that has your ear. Meanwhile, you keep telling everybody how much you love biking but you have made our bike boulevards more car-centric. Don’t watch what you do, you have been telling people, rather, listen to what you say. Here at the Tattler, we watch what politicians do, sorry, John.
But the most disturbing thing you are telling people here is that you are “someone who listens”. You are the most unaccountable Emeryville City Council member in over 40 years. You NEVER answer your constituent’s questions (or the press) if the questions are tough. You have made yourself totally unavailable to your constituents, for neither on the phone nor via email or in any other capacity, are you answerable. In Emeryville, we have a longstanding tradition that the Council members are directly answerable to the constituents, even those who may be critical. But you have destroyed that grand convention because you have introduced a new paradigm on the Council; Council members looking out after their ‘brand’ and super controlling their narrative. Unfortunately, this new Bauters paradigm is infecting other Council members, your protege Courtney Welch especially. This is why we have introduced the ‘Tattler Camera of Accountability’, the paparazzi style hounding of heretofore unaccountable Council members as they venture out in public. You’re welcome.
Politicians are always welcome to comment on Tattler stories and even to submit stories for publishing directly. I have committed to posting, without editing, anything any Council member might submit and that’s true for you too, of course. I have made this clear to you. But if a Council member tries to use the Tattler to disseminate misinformation, especially that which would be directly helpful to their career as a politician, it will be pushed back against by me. Because the people are interested in what you do, not what you say you’re doing.
You forgot to say "I'm John Bauters, and I approve of this message." dumbass
DeleteI'm surprised you let Bauters' statement go, "He has a track record of influencing meaningful change while earning the respect of his colleagues." Earning the respect of his colleagues? Where does he get off saying that?!? He's been on a nearly two year hostile attack against his colleague Council member Kalimah Priforce. You've reported on this Brian. I'm surprised you let this statement go. Bauters is extremely nasty against anyone that gets in his way. Just ask Priforce.
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A piece of work for sure! Surely wouldn’t vote fir anyone who’s in the pockets of deep $ and a rule bender of existing council rules to benefit developers 😱 SHAME!
ReplyDeleteAs for Oakland leadership; the out going mayor left that office with Less police on the force than when she started, high crime, homelessness, the city riddled with blight as well as many city staff vacancies!
Rather than pointing fingers & blaming, think it would be more constructive to help find solutions. Bas has my vote!