The election isn’t for nearly 19 months, but Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is already up and running for re-election — with her official announcement set for Monday.

“I want to start early because I am about winning the election,” Schaaf told us. “I don’t take anything for granted.”

In other words: Get in early, get the fundraising going, and in the process, give other possible candidates pause about getting into the race against a declared incumbent.

As with her first run for mayor, Schaaf’s campaign will be run by SCN Strategies. The San Francisco firm’s other clients include Gov. Jerry Brown, Sen. Kamala Harris, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee — all of whom have followed the same early-in strategy.

But as for whether Schaaf is a shoo-in come November 2018, that’s not clear. Oakland’s self-proclaimed “cheerleader” has had her ups, but also her downs.

Her first year in office saw an economic boom that, while bringing in new business and vitality, also created a crisis in affordable housing.

The Warriors’ championship parade instilled a new civic pride, but now both the Warriors and the Raiders are on their way out of town.

Schaaf can claim a significant drop in crime under her watch. But those safety gains were overshadowed by the scandal involving police officers and a sexually exploited teenager, which was partly responsible for the departures in rapid succession of three police chiefs.

Most recently, Schaaf has faced fallout from the Ghost Ship and San Pablo Avenue halfway house fires. Together, they killed 40 people and exposed a lack of inspections and follow-through by the Fire Department and other city agencies.

Schaaf said there is still serious work to be done on the “city organization” to prevent further disasters. But she also pointed to work she has done in other areas, like persuading voters to pass a $600 million infrastructure bond to “fix the damn potholes.”

So far there are no announced opponents for Schaaf — or even serious rumblings of anyone running against her. Unlike her immediate predecessor, Jean Quan, whose precipitous slide in the polls in her final year attracted nearly a dozen challengers, Schaaf still has a store of goodwill with voters.

A post-Ghost Ship phone survey of 400 registered Oakland voters, conducted Feb. 23-26 by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates — largely to test support for development of the former Oak Knoll Naval Hospital site — found Schaaf had a 2-to-1 favorable/unfavorable rating among those surveyed.

Fraud squad: BART is planning to spend $800,000 next year to hire a team of six full-time fare inspectors to roam the line and hunt down fare cheats who supposedly are costing the ailing rail line millions of dollars a year in lost revenue.

“This is not just about saving money — it’s a cultural thing,” said BART spokesman Jim Allison. “We rely on people who are honest to help pay our operating costs.”

And just to make sure passengers are honest, the six inspectors will randomly check passengers for Clipper cards and tickets to see if they were swiped at the station fare gates.

The fare inspectors and a new, $64,000-a-year-plus clerical worker to help them are among measures rolled out by BART staff to deal with a $31 million budget deficit next year.

BART officials declined to tell us just how much revenue they think they’re losing from fare cheats, but will make their estimate public at a Board of Directors committee meeting Tuesday.

However, Allison said BART could recoup between $7 million and $11 million next year if the deterrent program — aimed mostly at San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell and Civic Center stations — goes forward.

In addition to hiring roving fare inspectors — at $52,000 to $63,000 a year — BART plans to spend $1.9 million to raise some turnstiles — making them harder to leap over — and to eliminate swinging gates not directly next to the station agent booths.

BART also may restrict the use of elevators that allow riders to to bypass the fare gates altogether.

The full cost of the fare-cheat posse is still up in the air. For instance, the squad will need handheld devices — which are still being developed by BART staff — to scan Clipper cards and paper tickets to determine if customers actually paid.

As for the penalties? They’re already set by the state — averaging $100 per violation but reaching as high as $250.

Balls and strikes: Cast members of “Hamilton” are certainly making the rounds — and running the bases — during their Bay Area stay.

One group belted out “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch at the A’s opener at the Oakland Coliseum on April 3 — and a week later, other members piped up with “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Giants’ home opener.

As for reports that the Giants were upset at coming in second?

“Totally different cast members,” said Staci Slaughter, Giants executive VP for communications. And anyway, she said, the invite was “a natural choice, because “‘Hamilton’ is such a big cultural phenomenon.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross