City Government

Mayor Schaaf May Have Violated the State Campaign Law

Published

8 years ago

June 29, 2018

Same election tactic resulted in $2,500 fine last week for her former staffer, Peggy Moore

Mayor Libby Schaaf may have recently committed the same state campaign law violation that resulted in a fine for her former staff member when she ran for a seat on the Oakland City Council.

Peggy Moore, who ran unsuccessfully against Councilmember-at-Large Rebecca Kaplan in 2016, was fined $2,500 last week by the Fair Political Practice Commission (FPPC), the state’s political watchdog agency, for failing to properly identify who sent two mass mailings to voters before the Nov. 8, 2016 election, according to a report published by the East Bay Times.

Moore’s two campaign emails were sent to about 200 potential voters in August 2016 inviting them “to participate in a short, confidential survey about local issues in Oakland.” However, the emails did not list who paid for the survey, in violation of a section of the Political Reform Act.

Mayor Schaaf’s campaign, utilizing the same firm and campaign consultant hired by Moore, this month conducted a similar poll to voters, without identifying who paid for it.
This campaign tactic is called a “push poll,” which according to Wikipedia “is an interactive marketing technique, most commonly employed during political campaigning, in which an individual or organization attempts to manipulate or alter prospective voters’ views/beliefs under the guise of conducting an opinion poll.”

The poll was conducted by EMC Research on behalf of both Moore’s and Schaaf’s political campaigns. According to last week’s FPPC report, “The seriousness of the violations is heightened by the number of mass mailings, which evidences a pattern of non-disclosure,” according to the FPPC ruling, quoted by the East Bay Times. “However, respondents do not have a prior history of other violations of the act.”

Councilmember Kaplan, who had filed the complaint against Moore’s campaign, said the survey sent out by Mayor Schaaf’s re-election campaign did not indicate who paid for it. Both campaigns used the same campaign consultant, Ace Smith of SCN Strategies.

“They committed the same crime again,” Kaplan said. “The FPPC is saying this behavior is absolutely illegal, and it’s the exact same behavior they just did again.” By the Oakland Post’s deadline neither Moore, Mayor Schaaf nor their campaign consulants had responded to a request for comments.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”