Posted on 05/29/2009 7:41:57 AM PDT by SmithL
With the dark cloud of a lingering federal probe behind him, there is nothing standing between former state Sen. Don Perata and the Oakland mayor's office but time, opportunity and blue skies.
On Wednesday, the FBI closed the books on a five-year investigation into whether Perata's business dealings drove his legislative decisions.
Perata announced his plans in March to run for mayor of Oakland in 2010. So far, his toughest competition, former City Manager Robert Bobb, is currently the state-appointed director of the Detroit public schools and lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
The federal investigation was the darkest hour in what has otherwise been a soaring political career for Perata, 64, formerly an Alameda schoolteacher and member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
"You haven't lived until federal authorities raid your house and the homes of your children," Perata quipped earlier this year. "We were cooperating with them, but they conducted those raids like they were going after John Dillinger."
Perata was elected to the state Legislature in 1996 and served as Senate leader from 2004 to 2008, when term limits forced him to retire. In Sacramento he proved a tough, effective lawmaker and a prodigious political fund-raiser, and for a time he was the most powerful Democrat in California.
He is a present politician who understands the ins and outs of both state and local government. He's succeeded at every level of politics and is respected for his abilities as a negotiator and dealmaker. While there are some Oakland voters who believe that all politicians are scoundrels at heart, Perata's vindication after five years under a federal lens provides him with a pretty strong rebuke to all critics.
"For anyone who doubted that this was over, I think we can close the book on it," Perata said
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Re Oakland.
Could Perata really be that much worse than Dellums?
This man is terrible. He used to be my sisters civics teacher at Alameda High School years ago.
Of all the pols in Alameda County is was always the worst.
It’s kinda like become manager of a landfill. These guys just do it to make money for themselves. If the city goes to pot, so what? So it does go to pot.
It’s a shame that the heavily liberal Oakland can’t see their way clear to electing a conservative mayor. That town is dying a rapid death. Sure there are beautiful areas, but you walk down Broadway between 12th and 20th streets and all you see are shuttered storefronts. I only view Oakland the way it should be viewed - from the freeway through the window of a speeding car.
I’m in the North Bay Area.
I refuse to even cross the bridge anymore.
good old KTVU says he was cleared of wrongdoing in fundraising.. I guess the word kickback doesn’t mean anything anymore. The DoJ has sunk to a new low.
Po’ Don, there’s nothing left to loot in Oakland. I bet his family would rather go where the grabbing is greener.
Used to be a time when Oakland and SF used to be reliably Republican areas. Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
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