Oakland voter guide — Empower Oakland's trusted voter information resource for Oakland elections

Oakland's Most Trusted Voter Guide

Our June 2026 primary voter guide gives you clear, carefully researched, independent endorsements for every race and measure on the June 2 ballot.

June 2026 Endorsements

Election Day: June 2, 2026

Yes on Measure C

City of Oakland Business Tax

Yes on Measure D

City of Oakland Charter Amendment

No on Measure E

City of Oakland Parcel Tax

District Attorney

Ursula Jones Dickson

AC Superior Court Judge, Seat 13

Michael P. Johnson

AC Superior Court Judge, Seat 19

Selia Warren

What's on the Ballot

Measure C

City of Oakland Business Tax

Oakland’s small businesses are struggling, and for years city hall made it harder, not easier, to operate here.

Measure C is a small but meaningful step in the right direction. It gives qualifying small businesses a one-year tax exemption – around $180 in average annual savings – with the option for city council to extend the policy for up to three more years at minimal cost to the city budget.

While the dollar amount is modest, it sends business owners a signal that Oakland wants to be a friendlier operating environment for local entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, we believe there is much more the city must do to truly improve the business climate – public safety chief among them – and Measure C is a feasible, affordable, targeted step in the right direction.

You might hear:

“$180 doesn’t move the needle for any real business.”

While this isn’t a silver bullet, it helps build real momentum, and leaving an easy win on the table helps no one.

Measure D

City of Oakland Charter Amendment

Oakland police officers and firefighters hired before 1976 belong to a separate pension system, the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS). It’s fully funded, and as its obligations shrink every year, the board overseeing it no longer needs to operate at the same scale it once did.

Measure D updates the PFRS board structure to reflect that reality – expanding who can serve on the board and reducing mandatory meetings from monthly to quarterly. The only reason it’s on the ballot is because the board is written into the city charter, which requires voter approval to change.

We support Measure D because it updates the board’s structure in a practical, low-risk way. The measure has no fiscal impact on the city budget or taxpayers.

You might hear:

“This sets a bad precedent for changing charter commissions.”

PFRS is a genuinely unique case – a closed, fully-funded system with a membership base that gets smaller every year. Updating it isn’t a template for weakening oversight elsewhere. If anything, Oakland has too many boards and commissions that no longer reflect how the city actually operates. This is a sensible update, not a slippery slope.

Measure E

City of Oakland Parcel Tax

Measure E is a new parcel tax being pitched to voters as a public safety investment. Public safety is Oakland’s top priority, which is exactly why we recommend voting no.

Oaklanders have been here before. In 2024, voters approved Measure NN to raise $30M a year with a clear promise: maintain 700 police officers. Currently, Oakland has 618 officers – with only 500 on active duty – and has no credible plan to reach that target. Yet Oaklanders are still paying that tax, even though the promise was never kept.

Measure E repeats the same pattern. The language is vague, the accountability mechanisms are weak, and there’s no reason to believe this money will be spent differently. This tax is also regressive – because every property pays the same amount regardless of value, lower-income homeowners and renters absorb a disproportionate share of the cost.

Oaklanders already pay the highest taxes per capita of any city in California. At a time when cost of living is the second-biggest concern for Oaklanders, this tax makes it worse for the people who are least able to afford it.

Oakland doesn’t have a funding gap, it has an execution gap. The city has 80 vacant police positions and 839 other vacant city positions, more than half of which have no active hiring process despite having a budget for all of them. The police department operates under four separate chains of command – including a civilian oversight commission and a federal monitor – creating a level of bureaucratic dysfunction that no amount of new funding resolves. The city even reported a budget surplus in February, but months later it’s asking for more money.

You might hear:

“Voting no means you don’t care about public safety.”

Voting no is not anti-public-safety. It’s the only lever voters have to demand accountability before writing another check.

Who We're Endorsing

Ursula Jones Dickson

District Attorney

Ursula Jones Dickson

In one year, Ursula Jones-Dickson has already changed the trajectory of public safety in Alameda County. Her office reviewed 22,386 police reports and filed 16,715 cases – a 23% increase from 2024. Over $1M in stolen property was recovered. More than $2M was returned to survivors of crime. She rebuilt the DA’s office from the ground up, bringing in staff with a combined 569 years of experience.

Her approach is clear: rehabilitation and second chances for youth and first-time offenders, real consequences for repeat and violent offenders. Before taking this role she spent 15 years as a deputy DA and 11 years as an Alameda County Superior Court judge. She knows this system from every angle – and the results show it.

You might hear:

“She’s only been in office a year. It’s too soon to know if it’s working.”

A 23% increase in case filings and $3M returned to victims and communities in 12 months doesn’t happen on its own. Her 26 years of prior experience in this exact system meant she didn’t need a learning curve.

Ursula Jones-Dickson is a DA that puts victims, survivors, and our communities first and that’s why she has our full support.

Michael P. Johnson

AC Superior Court Judge, Seat 13

Michael P. Johnson

Michael Johnson has practiced law in Oakland for over 30 years. For the past seven years, he has served as a Temporary Judge in Alameda County Superior Court, presiding over hundreds of trials, hearings, and arraignments. Past Presiding Judge Charles Smiley – now an Appellate Court Justice – said Mr. Johnson’s work on the bench was “among the best in the county.”

His background spans civil rights, corporate law, privacy, and personal injury. He’s composed, thorough, and doesn’t bring an agenda into the courtroom. His opponent, A. Cabral Bonner, is an impressive civil rights attorney with genuine passion for this city – we think very highly of him.

But for this seat, Mr. Johnson’s depth and breadth of actual courtroom experience is the right fit.

You might hear:

“His opponent is a passionate civil rights advocate – shouldn’t that matter for this court?”

It does matter, and we respect Mr. Bonner’s commitment to Oakland. But a Superior Court judge handles an enormous range of cases – criminal, civil, family, probate. Advocacy experience alone doesn’t prepare you for that breadth. Michael Johnson’s seven years on the bench across that full range is proof he can do the job best.

Selia Warren

AC Superior Court Judge, Seat 19

Selia Warren

Selia Warren has spent more than a decade as a Deputy City Attorney for Oakland, litigating in trial and appellate courts on civil rights, land use, elections law, and constitutional matters. She has family roots in Oakland going back decades, owns a home here, has kids in Oakland schools, and her investment in our community resonated strongly.

Her opponent, the Honorable Patricia Miles, is deeply experienced and genuinely impressed us. But her 13 years as an Administrative Law Judge, while impressive, is narrow by design, focused on structured hearings within a very specific regulatory framework. A Superior Court docket is far broader: criminal cases, civil jury trials, constitutional questions.

You might hear:

“Patricia Miles has 13 years of judicial experience. Selia Warren has none.”

ALJ experience and Superior Court experience are not the same thing. Administrative law judges don’t handle criminal cases, civil jury trials, or the constitutional questions that regularly come before Superior Court.

Selia Warren has spent over a decade litigating exactly those kinds of cases in the courts where this judge position will serve.

Want to see what the candidates said in their own words? Read the full candidate questionnaires.

How We Make Endorsements

Our endorsement process is thorough and deliberative. A volunteer committee of everyday Oaklanders creates detailed questionnaires for each race, invites all ballot-qualified candidates to respond, and conducts in-person interviews for key races. For ballot measures, we review the full text, independent analyses, and arguments on both sides. All endorsements require a 60% committee vote, and members recuse themselves from races where they have personal conflicts.

Past Voter Guides

2025 Special Municipal Election Voter Guide

Our endorsements for Mayor, City Council District 2.

View guide

2024 Voter Guide

Our first voter guide covered City Council, School Board, BART, AC Transit, Alameda County, and Oakland ballot measures.

View guide

Oakland's Most-Read Independent Civic Analysis

In-depth reporting on City Hall, school board decisions, and election strategy — delivered free to your inbox.

Subscribe to the Newsletter