Oaks Activist RunningWolf Launches Bid to Recall Mayor

Community activist Zachary RunningWolf yesterday morning announced a plan to recall Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.

RunningWolf, who ran for mayor against Bates in the 2006 election and is a leading voice for the tree-sitters near Memorial Stadium, said he was tired of Bates’ acquiescence to local developers and the UC Berkeley campus.

As an example, RunningWolf cited the creation of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee as part of the settlement of a lawsuit between the campus and city in 2005. The committee gives a voice to the campus in Downtown planning.

“It’s a modern day land-grab,” RunningWolf said. “You might as well have the covered wagons emblazoned with the Cal logo rolling through Downtown Berkeley.”

Bates was returning from London last night and was unavailable for comment.

Representatives from his office said they were not very concerned by RunningWolf’s threatened recall.

“I don’t think this is really worthy of too much response,” said Cisco DeVries, the mayor’s chief of staff.

RunningWolf, who garnered 4.6 percent of the mayoral vote in 2006, will have about two months to acquire about 17,500 signatures—25 percent of registered Berkeley voters—before the recall issue can be voted on by residents, DeVries said.

This will be difficult to do, DeVries said, because Bates received 63 percent of the mayoral vote in 2006 and the next mayor’s race is only a year away, giving unhappy voters a chance to vote for another candidate.

But RunningWolf said now was the time to act.

“Yes, (the move to recall) probably should have happened earlier,” he said. “But now (the reasons to recall Bates) are coming from so many levels, it needs to happen.”

At RunningWolf’s press conference, more media members appeared to be present than recall supporters.

Berkeley resident Jeff Benefiel, who voted for RunningWolf in the most recent election, said he was unsure if he would support the recall effort or if it will even get off the ground.

“If all they had to do was pull together 200-300 signatures, then maybe,” he said. “But, 17,000? Good grief.”

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