Mud flies in obscure but influential East Bay political campaign

there's a much smaller race heating up in the East Bay that could have large implications yeah it's something called the Elam County Democratic Central Committee for district 18 the winners there can help swing important races and as donin shows us the importance of the role is reflected in the amount of dirt being flung as we count down to election [Music] day East Oakland mom Pamela faren says she's running for a democratic Central Committee possession so her kids and other families can feel s

afe in Oakland I'm tired of the conditions of the city and things don't seem to be getting better and so it's time for regular oaklands it's time for people to step up but when the political newcomer saw an attack act that targeted her and her moderate allies a group known as the Empower Oakland slate she was disappointed our features are altered our faces are altered to look Sinister and aggressive these things are very troubling an opponent in the race set up a website and send text messages t

o some voters calling Pamela and her group criminals their pictures photoshopped Pamela and Ally Lauren Taylor say the attack crosses the line what we shouldn't stand for is racist tropes which is what this was this was absolute racist this was lies this was Lial accusing us of being criminals with no proof the Empower Oakland slate has issued a cease and assist uh order to Mario the attack at was reportedly launched by candidate Mario hores a real estate broker who years ago unsuccessfully ran

for an Oakland City Council seat I think the significance of this is important political analyst Joe tuman says winners of the Alama County Democratic Central Committee district 18 race will have huge power the Democratic committee hands out endorsements he says endorsements lead to name recognition and donations and if you didn't have that endorsement you'd have to do this all on your own you'd have to go door too uh knocking for endorsements Andor asking people for money 85% of the people endo

rsed by this group end up winning their elections at the County City levels many candidates in the Rays have openly demanded Mario hores pulled the ad and apologize including Adrian abuan how do we build Bridges and how do we make sure that there's also an ability to collaborate with one another and an ad like that doesn't do that right we denounce pieces like that and we don't even want to give it attention Pamela hopes voters will ignore the attack at and focus on what they're fighting for I w

ant to be able to bring my kids to a park that's clean that's not full of trash and filth only registered Democrats in the district can vote in this race there are 29 candidates going after 10 committee seats on March 5th we did try to contact candidate Mario harez today to get his side of the story but so far we have not heard back from him