An ebullient Oakland Mayor-elect Ron Dellums promised Monday to seek a broad consensus to fulfill his vision for making the city a model, saying he will soon set up citizen groups to help him deal with the public schools, crime and economic development when he takes office Jan. 1. "It is a responsibility I accept with honor, humility and optimism," the progressive former congressman, 70, said in his first public remarks since the June 6 election. "We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city."
| I guess Oakland has become the Elephants' Graveyard for washed-up Dem politicians... |
On Saturday, his chief opponent in the race -- City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente -- congratulated Dellums, who won 50.18 percent of the vote. De La Fuente won the support of 32.99 percent of 83,675 total votes cast, followed by City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel and three other candidates. The race took nearly two weeks to decide because thousands of ballots were not counted on election day and Dellums had remained just below the threshold needed to win without a November runoff. Dellums said he had remained confident he would win outright, despite the nail-biting count of absentee and provisional ballots. "I was the calmest person in Oakland these last 10 days," Dellums said. He will succeed two-term Mayor Jerry Brown, who is running for state attorney general. The two men are scheduled to speak by phone today and meet next week. |