Openly Gay Candidate Runs for Berkeley Mayor

Gay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington has decided to run this November for mayor of the East Bay city.

It is the second mayoral bid by the long-serving council member, who first ran for the elected post in 2012. This December will mark his 20th anniversary since joining the council.

Tom Bates, who has served as Berkeley's mayor since 2002, has said he will not seek re-election this year. Several members of the council have been running to succeed him for months, and the race for the open seat is expected to draw half a dozen or more candidates, though Worthington is expected to be the only LGBT person in the race.

Speaking exclusively to the Bay Area Reporter about his decision, Worthington said in an interview Tuesday evening that his mayoral bid was prompted by being endorsed by both the city's firefighters union, IAFF Local 1277, and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 even though he had yet to declare his candidacy.

"Members of the unions have been encouraging me to run, so the unions included me in their considerations and endorsed me even though I told them I was not sure I was running," said Worthington, 62, who is considered one of the more liberal members of the council and holds the District 7 seat.

The firefighters union has also endorsed District 5 City Councilman Laurie Capitelli in the race, while SEIU dual endorsed District 4 City Councilman Jesse Arreguin, a former aide to Worthington. Berkeley uses a ranked-choice voting system, allowing voters to rank their first, second and third choice candidates in both mayoral and council races.

Worthington told the B.A.R. that he and Arreguin have agreed to form what he called "a candidate coalition and a political partnership" in the race. Each will be asking their supporters to also vote for their council colleague on the ballot in an effort to use the ranked-choice system to their advantage.

"We are encouraging people to vote for both of us," said Worthington, adding that he doesn't care if voters choose him as their first or second choice. "I would be happy either way."

Arreguin, who has the endorsement of one of his council colleagues, District 3 Councilman Max Anderson, told the B.A.R. Wednesday evening, well after the paper had gone to press, that he is running to be the first choice for voters but is asking Worthington's supporters to pick him as their second choice.

"I will encourage my voters to vote for Kriss as their second rank vote," he said, adding that they have not teamed up with a third candidate in the race.

Capitelli, considered a more moderate council member, has secured the endorsement of Bates as well as four of his council colleagues, including gay Councilman Darryl Moore and lesbian Councilwoman Lori Droste. Judy Appel, a lesbian who serves on the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education, is also backing his mayoral bid.

Precedent

There is precedent for candidates successfully using ranked-choice voting to block an opponent. In the 2010 Oakland mayoral race, Jean Quan sought to be the second or third choice of supporters of the other candidates in the race, especially of those backing lesbian City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan.

The strategy worked, and Quan was able to defeat the more moderate Don Perata, who had the most votes in the first round but then saw Quan surge past him as the ranked votes where tallied when the other candidates were knocked out of the race. Now Worthington and Arreguin hope to see the same outcome in their race against Capitelli.

"I think one of the three of us is going to win," predicted Worthington. "It will be fascinating to see."

Worthington's bid four years ago marked the first time an openly LGBT person had run for mayor in Berkeley. And should he win come November, Worthington would only be the second out person elected mayor of a Bay Area city.

(Gary Cloutier was sworn in as Vallejo's mayor in 2007 but was ousted from office seven days later following a recount of the vote.)

In 1994 gay Berkeley resident Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter was appointed the city's mayor following the resignation of Loni Hancock, who is married to Bates and is now a state senator. She stepped down to take a job with then-President Bill Clinton's administration.

Leiter was seen as a caretaker of the office and agreed not to seek a full term, leading to the election that fall of Shirley Dean as mayor.

Should he become mayor, which is largely a ceremonial post, as Berkeley has a strong city manager form of government, Worthington said his main goal would be to revamp how City Council meetings, which are held twice a month on Tuesday nights, are run. Any controversial land use or zoning issue, for instance, he would pull from the regular council meeting agenda and call for a special hearing on the matter on a separate night.

"I think we can end the Tuesday night circus," said Worthington. "I can wave my magic wand and say this land use thing will have its own night."