I’m not even going to try to out-report other media outlets on this major scandal because I can’t. I don’t have the resources of, say, Steven Tavares or KTVU or Oaklandside. What I can write is that it looks really bad for Thao, and maybe Kaplan and Kalb too; and the spillover effect could impact the entire City Council, not to mention the Pamela Price recall.
Let me start with something I find particularly offensive: the matter of Thao’s status as a renter or homeowner, which still seems unclear. For years she’s portrayed herself as a renter. Her Instagram account describes her as “51st Mayor of Oakland California, renter, mom, daughter of Hmong refugees.” During her campaign for mayor, Thao’s website claimed “Sheng is one of only three renters on the Oakland City Council.” After she was elected Oaklandside, using information provided by Thao, ran a piece that claimed “Mayor-elect Sheng Thao is a renter herself.” And again, after the election, Thao told NBC News that she was a renter.
Now, we find out that Thao owns at least one pricy house in Oakland, the one at 80 Maiden Lane, whose value Zillow estimates at nearly $1.3 million.
It’s true that when Thao described herself as a “renter” she didn’t explicitly deny being a homeowner, but that was never clear, and the media never asked. They all called her a “renter.” The ploy was clearly designed to appeal to Oakland renters: “Sheng Thao is one of us, not a rich homeowner, just a working girl and mom like us.” So while Thao may not have technically lied, it was a sleazy thing to do. And this sleaziness, I believe, has characterized Thao’s entire political career.
Thao also makes much of being poor. She was “homeless,” she repeatedly alleged, the daughter of Hmong refugees who had nothing. I’d like to know exactly how many homes Thao actually owns. How was she able to afford a $1.3 million home if she’s so poor? How about it, Henry Lee, Darwin BondGraham, Sarah Ravani? Kindly do a little investigative reporting and let us know.
At any rate, Thao’s political career is mercifully over. Speculation on social media is that she’ll resign in the next few days. When I talked about the “spillover effect” of the Thao scandal, I meant that it will tarnish all of the politicians who have been associated with Thao over the years. That obviously includes Pamela Price. The stench of corruption, grifting, graft and lying that Thao unleased is drifting over the entire city like smoke from a wildfire, polluting its politics and its politicians; Madame District Attorney’s chances of avoiding being recalled just sank even lower.
But this spreads to others. Rebecca Kaplan also appears finished. Nikki Bas, who’s aiming for Board of Supervisors, is not directly implicated in the current scandal, but she’s been joined at the hip with Thao (Bas, Thao, Kaplan and Fife have been called “The Squad”), and she’s not going to be able to run away from this major crisis.
We’ve gotten used to politicians being caught up in financial scandals but there’s something about this one that makes me laugh. Thao and her pals aren’t even good grifters. They’re so incompetent, they left their fingerprints on money all over the place. I should think that this scandal would sour Oakland voters once and for all on these “progressive” politicians. We can’t trust them. Their goal has always been to enrich themselves and increase their power, and incurious Oakland voters too often have fallen for it. People like Thao give speeches proclaiming how much they care about the Black community, and then they proceed to destroy the Black community and, while they’re at it, violate campaign finance laws and insult all of us with a clumsy coverup. They clearly thought that Oakland voters would never find out what they did, because the local media was on their side. But they didn’t count on the FBI. Thank you Biden Justice Department! You’re busted, Sheng Thao. The jig is up.
Steve Heimoff