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The2002 Oakland mayoral election was held on March 5, 2002, to elect themayor ofOakland, California. It saw the reelection of incumbent mayorJerry Brown.
Former Oakland City Council memberWilson Riles Jr., who had served on the City Council from 1979 until 1992, challenged incumbent first-term mayorJerry Brown.[1][2]
Brown ran a low-profile campaign.[3]
Brown had $200,000 in campaign funds, more than twice what Riles had.[3]
While the previous election had attracted national media attention, very little media coverage was paid to the 2002 race.[4]
A chief critique of Brown made by Riles was that the incumbent mayor was too cozy with downtown developers.[1]
Riles, ultimately, performed stronger than had been anticipated by many.[3]
Brown was also campaigning in support ofballot measure that would permanently extend 1998's Measure X, which had implemented a six-year period in which Oakland would be run under thestrong mayor form of governance. Measure X's change from a weak mayor to strong mayor form of governance would expire during the coming mayoral term. However, the measure to permanently extend Measure X ultimately failed in 2002.[5] A similar measure which permanently extended the Measure X changes, however, would successfully be approved by voters in 2004, thus permentantly keeping they changes made by Measure X.[5]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerry Brown (incumbent) | 42,892 | 63.5 | |
| Wilson Riles Jr. | 24,611 | 36.4 | |
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