SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Oakland, California, voters who recalled their mayor in November over crime, homelessness and allegations of corruption are weighing whether to give the job to former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a progressive icon and Black female trailblazer who represented the city in Congress for over two decades.
The 78-year-old Lee is widely considered the front-runner in the April 15 election. This is despite her politics in a state where progressives have not fared well lately, partly over perceptions they are too soft on crime.
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Loren Taylor, right, listens as fellow Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee answers a question during a debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Barbara Lee, left, answers a question next to fellow Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor during a debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Loren Taylor answers a question during the Oakland mayoral debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Barbara Lee answers a question during the Oakland mayoral debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Loren Taylor, right, answers a question next to fellow Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee during a debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Former Mayor Sheng Thao was ousted barely two years into her term. Voters in November also recalled Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, whose territory included Oakland, and Los Angeles County voters denied progressive DA George Gascón a second term in office.
Her leading opponent is Loren Taylor, 47, a former Oakland City Council member who supports using drones and surveillance cameras to fight crime, and who nearly won the race for mayor in 2022. Ballots for the Oakland race have been mailed and voting is underway.
Lee is walking a careful line in how she addresses public safety in an Oakland that has become less permissive and more strident about punishing wrongdoers, like many other Democratic cities in California where voters are exasperated over grimy street conditions and empty storefronts.
“She can’t govern on the public safety front as a progressive or liberal. That has been repudiated throughout the state of California and almost nationally,” said James Taylor, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco.
“So she’s going to have to find a good team of people around her who will help administer the balance between community and neighborhood and individual rights and overall public safety,” he said. “But Oaklanders want the streets to be safe.”
Oakland has long been the cheaper, funkier alternative to San Francisco across the Bay. The city of 400,000 is deeply liberal and multicultural, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and claimed by former Vice President Kamala Harris as her hometown.
But the city also is reeling from tent encampments, public drug use, illegal sideshows, gun violence and brazen robberies that prompted In-N-Out Burger to close its first location ever last year. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent California Highway Patrol officers to help combat what he called an alarming and unacceptable rise in crime. Oakland also doesn't have enough money to pay for public services.
On the campaign trail, Lee emphasizes the need for more community services as well as more police. She wants guns off the streets and more money for crime prevention. Economic development, job creation and ensuring core city services like fire hydrants work properly are among her priorities.
Lee rejects the idea that her progressive politics are at odds with the city.
“I believe that my values are Oakland values,” Lee said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Lee was first elected to the U.S. House in 1998 and became best known nationally as the only lawmaker to vote against the 2001 authorization for the use of military force in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate last year.
Her chief opponent, Taylor, who also is Black, says Oakland needs a pragmatic mayor who knows city government.
“The problems we’re facing, the things that need to be fixed in Oakland, she’s not the right fit," he said of Lee.
Consensus-building skills honed in Congress don’t always serve the needs of an executive in City Hall. For example, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, also a former member of Congress, is taking heat over January’s deadly wildfires, with some calling for a more take-charge mayor.
In Oakland, Lee and Taylor agree the Oakland Police Department needs 800 officers, up from the under 700 it has now. Taylor says he has a plan to get to 800 in three years, while Lee says it will be difficult.
Lee wants to test a guaranteed basic income program for homeless people and called the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling making it easier for cities to clear encampments "cruel."
Taylor voted against defunding police in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing by a police officer in 2020. He wants to clear homeless encampments and supports the use of drones, license plate readers and cameras to nab perpetrators.
Taylor, an engineer, served on the Oakland City Council from 2019 to 2023 and narrowly lost a bid for mayor in 2022 to Sheng Thao. He supported the recall while Lee opposed it.
Brenda Harbin-Forte, a retired judge who helped lead the recall, said she hopes voters will see beyond Lee's star power.
"I did not recall Sheng Thao to have Sheng Thao 2.0 in office,” she said.
But Carl Chan, a Chinatown community leader and recall leader, said he believes either Taylor or Lee will focus on the budget, public safety and economic revitalization. He hopes they will work together no matter who wins.
“No one can fix our problems immediately,” he said. “We'll be very happy if we can stop the bleeding.”
Loren Taylor, right, listens as fellow Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee answers a question during a debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Barbara Lee, left, answers a question next to fellow Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor during a debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Loren Taylor answers a question during the Oakland mayoral debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Barbara Lee answers a question during the Oakland mayoral debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Loren Taylor, right, answers a question next to fellow Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee during a debate Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday, nearly a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas with a surprise bombardment.
Meanwhile, officials say Egypt has introduced a new proposal to try and get the Israel-Hamas ceasefire back on track.
Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and a weekslong pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said Monday. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
A Hamas official said the group had “responded positively” to the proposal, without elaborating. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media on the closed-door talks.
— By Samy Magdy in Cairo
Here's the latest:
The Israeli military says a senior Hamas leader killed in a strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip was in charge of the group’s finances.
Ismail Barhoum was killed in an Israeli strike late Sunday on Nasser Hospital, where Hamas said he was receiving treatment. The strike also killed a teenage boy recovering from surgery.
The military said Monday that Barhoum oversaw Hamas’ finances in Gaza and transferred funds to its military wing. It said he was also serving as the head of Hamas’ government in Gaza after replacing another senior official killed in a strike last week.
Israel has killed most of Hamas’ top leaders and scores of mid-level commanders during the 17-month war. The group was still able to quickly reassert control over the territory during a ceasefire that took hold in January.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday the bodies of 61 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.
Hospitals also received 143 wounded, it said in its daily report.
The overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war rose to at least 50,082, the ministry said. Another 113,408 have been wounded, it said. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Palestinian Civil Defense says it has lost contact with six of its members who went on a rescue mission in the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The group said its members along with others from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society went to Rafah Sunday morning after receiving calls that Israeli troops entered the area of Hashasheen in west Rafah.
It added in a statement Monday that since then there has been no word from the paramedics.
Palestinian medics say an Israeli strike hit a school where displaced people were sheltering in the Gaza Strip, killing at least four people, including a child.
Another 18 people were wounded in Monday’s strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Three other hospitals had earlier reported 25 deaths from Israeli strikes overnight and into Monday.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.
Israeli officials say an attacker in a vehicle ran over several people at a bus stop in northern Israel before opening fire, killing a man in his 70s.
Police said officers shot and killed the attacker, whose identity was not immediately disclosed. Police referred to it as a terrorist attack, indicating they believe the assailant was a Palestinian militant.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said a man in his 70s was killed and another man, around 20 years old, was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
There has been a surge in Palestinian attacks since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, rampage into southern Israel ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has carried out wide-scale military operations in the occupied West Bank that have killed hundreds of Palestinians, and there has also been a rise in attacks by Jewish settlers.
Thousands of people are trapped in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after Israeli forces encircled part of it on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.
Israel ordered the evacuation of the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, telling people to leave by a single route on foot to Muwasi, a sprawling cluster of tent camps along the coast.
Thousands fled, but residents said many were trapped by Israeli forces.
The Rafah municipality said Monday that thousands were still trapped, including first responders from the Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israel’s defense minister says it is trying to avoid harming civilians as it strikes Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Israel Katz’s statement came nearly a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.
Katz said Monday that “Israel is not fighting the civilians in Gaza and is doing everything that international law requires to mitigate harm to civilians.”
He went on to blame Hamas for any civilian deaths, saying the militant group “fights in civilian dress, from civilian homes, and from behind civilians,” putting them in danger.
He said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hamas releases all its hostages and is no longer in control of Gaza or a threat to Israel.
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 25 Palestinians, including several women and children, according to three hospitals. The strikes come nearly a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas with a surprise bombardment that killed hundreds.
Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City received 11 bodies from strikes overnight into Monday, including three women and four children. One of the strikes killed two children, their parents, their grandmother and their uncle.
Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received seven bodies from strikes overnight and four from strikes the previous day. The European Hospital received three bodies from a strike near Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the Palestinian death toll from the 17-month war has passed 50,000. It has said that women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
An American trauma surgeon working in Gaza says most of the patients injured in an Israeli attack on the largest hospital in southern Gaza had been previously wounded when Israel resumed airstrikes last week.
Californian surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, who is working with the medical charity MedGlobal, said Monday he had been in the intensive care unit at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis when an airstrike hit surgical wards on Sunday.
Most of the injured had been recovering from wounds suffered in airstrikes last week when Israel resumed the war, he said.
“They were already trauma patients and now they’ve been traumatized for a second time,” Sidhwa, who was raised in Flint, Mich., told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Sidhwa said he had operated on a man and boy days before who died in the attack.
Palestinians carry the body of Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas' political bureau who was killed is an Israeli army strike of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry the body of Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas' political bureau who was killed is an Israeli army strike of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Members of the Abu Aker family mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed during an Israeli army strike before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of the Al-Kahlout family mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed during an Israeli army strike before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Naanaa Abu Aker holds the body of her 2-year-old niece Salma, killed during an Israeli army strike, before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mahmoud Al-Sayfi, 13, right with blue shirt, is comforted by relatives as he mourns both his parents killed during an Israeli army strike before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of the Abu Aker mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed during an Israeli army strike, before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Nasma Al-Saifi kisses the wrapped body of her nephew, Khaled, who was killed during an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of the Al-Kahlout family mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed during an Israeli army strike before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of the Al-Kahlout family mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed during an Israeli army strike before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Amani Abu Aker holds the body of her 2-year-old niece Salma, killed during an Israeli army strike, before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday, March 24, 2025.(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Rescue workers inspect a room at Nasser hospital after it was hit by a targeted Israeli army strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
Rescue workers inspect a room at Nasser hospital after it was hit by a targeted Israeli army strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amidst ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners react next to the body of their relative Ahmed Al Shaer who was killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as he brought for burial at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
