We all noticed that Thao went into hiding immediately after that embarrassing, career-ending FBI raid. It was the best thing she could do: notoriously maladroit at public speaking, she only would have made things worse for herself had she been out there in the media, making a fool of herself.
But she’s been crawling back into the spotlight the last few days. On Twitter, she announced, with the headline BIG NEWS, that she’s hired a new PR guy by the name of Casey Pratt. I, myself, never heard of him. On his Twitter page he calls himself a “spherical armadillo, clowder of cats.” Which makes me think he’s not exactly a master of words. He did post a picture of himself at an Oakland Roots game, so I guess he’s tight with Fife and Kaplan.
But this is about Sheng! She endorsed Kamala Harris on Twitter. She also gave a rather incoherent answer in a taped interview about the recent attack on elderly Asians at Westlake Christian Terrace. I paraphrase: “Uh. Y’know, unacceptable. Y’know. Everyone has a right to safety, y’know. Including, especially, I believe, our elderly residents. Y’know.” She denounced speeding drivers.
Over on her Facebook page, she similarly endorsed Harris and crowed about Casey Pratt, while putting up photos of herself with Kamala and President Biden. Now, every mayor of every hamlet in America has similar photos, so I’m not sure that’s going to help Sheng. Steven Tavares, who publishes the must-read “East Bay Insider,” yesterday wrote about a “New poll [that] is disastrous news for Thao’s chance to avoid recall.” Specifically, “Just 25 percent of Oakland voters would keep Thao in office.” She’s well behind in every racial group (Latino, API, White, Black) as well as all genders and most age groups. In fact, reports the poll, Thao “has not a distinct base of support” and “is heading toward a catastrophic recall election.”
Thao also Facebooked about “an all time record in terms of paving, hitting 47 miles of smoother streets throughout the city.” That will be small comfort to all the drivers who have suffered serious injuries and damage to their vehicles from potholes. In fact, Oakland has paid out $27 million in lawsuits to victims of potholes, an amount equal to what the City Council tried to defund from the police department. Thao also touted her “partnership” with Gov. Newsom in fighting crime, despite the fact that when he came her two weeks ago he practically called for her recall and could barely disguise his contempt. And finally, Sheng put up a little video of the Prescott Night Market in West Oakland, which she called “the perfect pre-game event before you head over to watch the Oakland Ballers.”
It’s so refreshing to see our Mayor once again leading the city courageously and boldly on to new frontiers!
Steve Heimoff