[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1393-E1394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RON DELLUMS: COMEBACK ``KID'' IS 70

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 12, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate former 
Congressman and Mayor-Elect Ron Dellums as he makes a political 
comeback at age 70 in winning the mayoral election in the city of 
Oakland, California. I submit to the Record an article written by Dan 
Rasmussen from the June 20, 2006 edition of Roll Call Politics entitled 
``Dellums: Comeback ``Kid'' is 70.''
  While this article references the effort mounted by 8000 people who 
signed a ``Draft Ron Dellums'' petition to convince him to run for 
mayor, it also highlights Mr. Dellums' stellar 27-year Congressional 
career. Ron Dellums' celebrity as a powerful representative has not 
waned as evidenced during a recent speech at a local celebration when 
the crowd spontaneously started chanting, ``Run Ron, Run.'' Their 
actions spoke volumes of the sentiment felt by the group who voted Ron 
Dellums into office and back into the political arena.
  Dellums, the first black elected to Congress from Northern 
California, has continued a perfect electoral streak: He has not lost 
an election since he first won a seat on the Berkeley City Council in 
1967.
  Ron Dellums has a plan to make Oakland, California the 21st Century 
Model City. He is committed to working with the citizens and local 
organizations to solve the city's problems as they transform Oakland 
into a great municipality. I am sure that much will be accomplished 
through his leadership.
  I enter the article ``Dellums: Comeback ``Kid'' is 70'' into the 
Record in recognition of Ron Dellums' strength, fortitude, longevity, 
and commitment to fairness and positive change. I congratulate Ron 
Dellums on his election to mayor of Oakland, California and wish him 
much success in the future.

                    [From Roll Call, June 20, 2006]

                     Dellums: Comeback `Kid' Is 70

                           (By Dan Rasmussen)

       At 70 years old, Ron Dellums is making a political 
     comeback. Seven years after he abruptly ended his 27-year 
     Congressional career, Dellums, after almost two weeks of 
     uncertainty, has won election as the new mayor of Oakland, 
     Calif.
       Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, 
     Dellums' closest opponent in the June 6 nonpartisan election, 
     conceded defeat on Saturday. The announcement came after two 
     tense weeks as the Alameda County Registrar of Voters 
     finished counting paper ballots and found that Dellums had 
     won the majority of the vote, avoiding a runoff by a mere 155 
     votes.

[[Page E1394]]

       It continued Dellums' perfect electoral streak: He hasn't 
     lost an election since he first won a seat on the Berkeley 
     City Council in 1967.
       Dellums is now slated to take office on Jan. 1, 2007. He'll 
     replace another veteran political warrior, former California 
     Gov. Jerry Brown, who, at age 69, is waging a battle to 
     become the Golden State's next attorney general.
       Over nearly three decades in the House, Dellums championed 
     many liberal causes--opposing the Vietnam War, U.S. nuclear 
     proliferation and President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy--
     while leading the fight in Congress against South African 
     apartheid.
       His liberal views earned him a place on former President 
     Richard Nixon's ``enemies list.'' But he briefly served as 
     chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, losing the 
     gavel after Democrats lost control of the House in 1994.
       Generations of California political activists, as well as 
     several prominent black leaders, rallied behind Dellums' 
     mayoral campaign.
       ``The election of former Congressman Ron Dellums as 
     Oakland's mayor marks the revival of a black-progressive-
     labor coalition that many thought was on its last legs,'' 
     wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnists Philip Matier and 
     Andrew Ross, declaring the election a ``sea of change in 
     Oakland politics.''
       Dellums, the first black elected to Congress from Northern 
     California, was not planning to run for mayor. But he changed 
     his mind after 8,000 people signed a ``Draft Ron Dellums'' 
     petition to convince him to run. The key moment, his friends 
     and supporters say, was when he was giving a speech at a 
     local urban renewal celebration and the crowd spontaneously 
     started chanting, ``Run, Ron, run.''
       Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), an 11-year staff member and 
     former intern for Dellums, said she was in the airport 
     listening to the speech on her mobile phone and realized at 
     that moment that Dellums would run.
       ``He was like a jazz musician, going in and out and you 
     didn't know where he was going to go,'' she said. ``Then 
     there was a moment when there was a crescendo in the musical, 
     and I thought, `He's going to do it.' ''
       Now, Dellums is hoping he can help Oakland make a comeback 
     similar to his own--the city in recent years has been plagued 
     with crime and violence.
       ``The other candidates were touting their experience with 
     the nuts and bolts of a city, but not moving things 
     forward,'' said Dellums spokesman Mike Healy. ``Ron is 
     blending the nuts and bolts with a vision of a model city.''
       Dellums, who during his years in Congress earned a 
     reputation as a deal maker despite his far-left ideology, 
     wants to make Oakland a model for urban renewal: combating 
     crime with community policing, providing alternatives for 
     young people, working to improve health care and encouraging 
     corporations to use green technologies.
       ``Ron is going to make Oakland a shining light in a sea of 
     real desperation,'' Lee said. ``I'm excited for the city of 
     Oakland. Ron's involved young people and gotten them to care 
     about the city's future.''
       Despite his age, Lee said Dellums really has connected with 
     Oakland's youths.
       ``You should see him with the young people. It's a young 
     people's campaign run by young people with Ron at the head,'' 
     she said. ``He's an eager, energetic, healthy, wise man.''
       In taking office, Dellums will be working with a few 
     familiar faces from his old Congressional staff. Not only is 
     Lee filling his old spot in Congress, but Sandre Swanson, 
     Dellums' district director and senior policy adviser for 25 
     years, won the Democratic primary this month for California's 
     16th Assembly district, and Keith Carson, another former 
     aide, is now the president of the Alameda County Board of 
     Supervisors.
       ``There's a quiet storm taking place,'' Lee said.

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