Welp, we knew it would be any day now when the whole business of the City Manager/Fire Chief/Independent Investigation thing would be politicized and the first group to do it are the self-styled “Alamedans in Charge” which appears to that group of long suffering mom n’ pop landlords that we are supposed to feel more sympathy for than people in danger of losing the shelter over their heads. These mom n’ pop landlords who we have all been told are so superior to the big management companies are the first political group to attempt to take advantage of a political situation which is largely still based on speculation and conjecture.

But now it’s not just the charter amendment to codify the much weaker rent stabilization this group is after. No. They’re gunning for the members of the City Council they deem to be more “progressive” so that they don’t take “control” over the City of Alameda.

Because that’s the job of these Alamedans in Charge, they — apparently — control Alameda and will fundraise and finance candidates that will help them stay “in charge.” I hope to see the same denunciation of this soft money and PAC spending toward candidates that Alamedans in Charge deem landlord friendly enough.

The whole letter is below.

This is the sort of small town conservatism that shows some national level progressives for the hypocrites that they really are. I’ll guess that a ton of people who are going to donate to this particular campaign were probably Bernie Sanders supporters, probably anti-Donald Trump, probably so personally upset over the state of the national discourse but locally so scared of losing control that they are using coded language about the “far left” as though any one on the Council is truly some radical uber progressive.

If this message “down with the progressives” resonates we’re looking at a super expensive City Council/Mayor fight ahead. And whenever there’s lots of money involved the PAC campaigns are going to be super ugly.











