Wednesday, September 07, 2022
‘Fringe’ Oakland mayoral candidate goes after Jews in widely distributed email
Oakland mayoral candidate Peter Y. Liu sent an email calling Jews "evil," "hateful" and "corrupt" to dozens of Bay Area journalists, news organizations, Jewish community contacts and fellow candidates on Sunday.
Liu, who ran for mayor unsuccessfully in 2014 and 2018 and has made outlandish statements in the past, wrote that he and other candidates have been excluded from an upcoming mayoral candidate forum that will focus on Jewish issues. It is co-hosted by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council and Temple Sinai in Oakland.
Billed as a forum for the "leading candidates" in the race, the Sept. 15 event will include the three people who have raised the most in campaign funds, according to Tye Gregory, JCRC's CEO.
"These same hateful Jews posted security guards with instructions to not let me into their s**tty forum in 2014," Liu wrote, alluding to an event that featured seven candidates, including incumbent Jean Quan and council members Rebecca Kaplan and Libby Schaaf, who ended up winning.
"These s**tty Jews are once against [sic] trying to disrespect the voters of Oakland in rigging the election process by promoting a few candidates they've handpicked to be in front of Jews controlled media," he wrote. "I am sick of these corrupt Jews and their media allies deceiving the public."
The upcoming forum, which will be held in person at Temple Sinai and also livestreamed, will bring together candidates Treva Reid, Loren Taylor and Sheng Thao (all current Oakland council members) to speak about their positions on "the critical issues facing our community and the city of Oakland, such as rising hate against Jews and other minorities, advancing racial and economic justice [and] ensuring community security," according to the JCRC event webpage.
Both Reid and Taylor are African American, and in 2018 Thao became the first Hmong American elected to the Oakland City Council. The same trio was featured in a mayoral forum on Aug. 15 co-hosted by Visit Oakland and the Jack London Improvement District.
Liu — who also ran for governor in a 2018 primary, finishing in 10th place out of 28 candidates with 0.4% of the 6.9 million ballots cast — has garnered media attention for inflammatory claims in the past.
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