Oakland Jewish Community Forum Now For All Mayoral Candidates Like Allyssa Victory?

Oakland Jewish Community Forum Now For All Mayoral Candidates Like Allyssa Victory?
Oakland Jewish Community Forum Now For All Mayoral Candidates Like Allyssa Victory? Well, in a “How ya like them apples” move, it appears Oakland Mayoral Candidate Peter Liu's troublesome, anti-semetic email ranting that this blogger belive spelled “jailtime” wound up doing exactly what Mr. Liu wanted: getting the San Francisco Based Jewish Community Relations Council's Oakland Jewish Community Forum opened up for all candidates for Mayor of Oakland, rather than a few. (I have to ask why in hell is a San Francisco non-profit organization is hosting an Oakland election event, anyway?) Now, according to emails sent to Zennie62Media by an unnamed source, one of them that was written by Mr. Jonathan Carey, who's affilated with the Oakland Jewish Community Relations Council explained that the event planned for tonight should be opened to all candidates. Apparently, Mr Carey read the laws governing the actions of non-profit organizations during an election, and determined that the JCRC was breaking them. Here's the email by Mr. Carey: On September 15, the JCRC will present an event titled, “Jewish Community Oakland Mayoral Candidate Forum.” Unfortunately, JCRC may have made a potentially serious error when they invited only three out of ten eligible candidates to participate in their sponsored forum Not only does the omission deprive the Oakland Jewish Community from hearing from all candidates on relevant topics, but the metric the JCRC seems to have used for selection early in the campaign cycle was "top three fundraisers." Given the astounding financial inequalities in Oakland and the top-heavy nature of political fundraising, many think that using a financial metric sends a deeply negative message about the Jewish community. Should the Jewish community only get to hear from candidates with early fundraising success, rather than those with fresh ideas?  Ironically, the JCRC's exclusion of seven candidates based on money metrics may have triggered one of the candidates to protest his exclusion through the use of the very traditional conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism the JCRC is trying to fight. Furthermore, one of the three candidates that JCRC did select for the forum has already come under scrutiny for fundraising irregularities. (He's referring to Oakland Councilmember Sheng Thao, who's alleged “make big donors look small” plan was revealed at Oakland News Now Blog by Charles Pine of the Coalition for A Better Oakland.) Lastly, as a non-profit organization, the JCRC’s selective political promotion and exclusion may actually be illegal according to Federal law and IRS regulations. Charitable nonprofits and foundations may not “participate in, or intervene in (including publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for political office.” 26 U.S.C. Section 501(c)(3). This prohibition applies to any and all candidates for federal, state and even local elections. See IRS Regulations, Section 1.501(c)(3)-1(3) (iii) It would be far more inclusive, in my opinion, to grant all eligible candidates an opportunity to address the Oakland Jewish community. Jonathan Carey, Oakland, CA Now, as of this writing, it's not clear that the event will go on in the way Mr. Carey advises or just be reset for another date. In an email to Mr. Steven Gellman, Publisher of The Jewish News of Northern California, Carey suggests that the next event be on the ZOOM platform: “It would be better in my opinion to have all eligible candidates and opportunity to address the Jewish community including the ones who may not be the earliest fundraisers. (We can leave out candidate Liu, if appropriate, since he seems to be disruptive). My solution is to hold another event on Zoom something like “Oakland Mayoral Candidates Speak to the Jewish Community.” The date would not conflict with Jewish holidays nor would it be on the heels of this week’s JCRC event.” Stay tuned.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSCMwwUgUoI