Go back to Election '94 pageOAKLAND -- Aided by a successful last-ditch effort to get minority voters to the polls, incumbent mayor Elihu M. Harris Tuesday beat political neophyte Ted W. Dang in one of election's day's most contentious contests.
Harris got 64.5 percent of the vote to Dang's 35 percent.
At campaign headquarters in Oakland Tuesday, Harris promised cheering supporters that he would immediately start the recovery process from what he called a "nasty" and "mean spirited" race.
Harris' easy re-election victory belied a bitterly-fought race that both camps beleived would be an especially close.
Dang had campaigned nonstop on a theme that found widespread appeal among affluent voters in the hills. That message was that Oakland has decayed economically and that street crime was out of control. Dang had forced Harris into a runoff after garnering strong support from the primarily-white neighborhoods in the Oakland hills.
Harris countered that he had made an excellent start in revitalizing Oakland's economic base and needed the next four years to finish the task.
Don Perata, Harris' campaign manager, said the contest was so divisive that it came close to destroying the city.
"I've never seen such a thin veneer of racism...and I'm glad it was rejected," Perata said," referring to the fact that Harris is African American.
Harris said he would redouble efforts to insure that everyone was included in Oakland's progress.
"We've got to reach out to those who were well meaning but misinformed about what we're trying to do," said Harris, who has had to fight a term-long image as an aloof and abrasive mayor during his first term. "I'm going to give you everything I've got."
Peralta said Harris won because of strong backing in the flat lands of Oakland, areas that are predominantly black and with a growing Latino and Asian population. Peralta said the campaign launched an intensive get-out-the vote drive in flatland area where residents failed to vote during the June election.
"We had 500 volunteers and we went after the ones who stayed home in June," he said.
In predominantly black West Oakland, for example, fewer than 100 persons voted in each of two precincts in the earlier contest. The volunteer effort pulled in 300 voters in each of those two precincts.
The campaign also melded its effort with the No on Prop. 187 effort in the Fruitvale, a predominantly Latino neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Dang didn't sound conciliatory in his concession. "I don't think I lost," he said. "I think the people of Oakland lost. If they want to elect Harris for four more years, so be it."
He also said he will have bumper stickers printed up saying, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Ted Dang."
Rick Del Vecchio of the Free Press staff contributed to this report
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