The current budget proposal for the City of Oakland would eliminate public campaign financing for the 2026 elections.
Oakland’s interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins this week proposed doing away with even reduced public campaign financing for the next election.
The Oaklandside reports that under Jenkins proposed budget, there would be no funding for either the Democracy Dollars and Limited Public Financing programs.
Both were approved by voters in recent years as a way to dilute the power increasingly wielded by individuals and organizations in funding local campaigns.
The city’s ongoing financial crisis in 2023 forced the city to postpone Democracy Dollars indefinitely.
Unless Oakland’s City Council moves to restore either program, the 2026 elections will be the city’s first without campaign financing in more than two decades.
