Richmond City Council welcomes back Nat Bates, Tom Butt with swearing-in ceremony

Re-elected Councilmembers Nat Bates and Tom Butt take the oath of office.

Political differences were—mostly—set aside Tuesday night during the celebratory swearing-in of re-elected city council members Nat Bates and Tom Butt. But beneath the congratulatory speeches for Bates and Butt, and the appreciative acknowledgments of outgoing councilmember Jeff Ritterman, were concerns for councilmember-elect Gary Bell and worries about the council’s potential make-up now that Bell’s seat…

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Election recap: Voters seek familiar faces

When the official returns came in on Wednesday morning, Richmond voters had decided that after the most expensive campaign in city history, what they wanted was familiar faces. Incumbents Nat Bates and Tom Butt were re-elected to the City Council, and Gary Bell, who will return to the dais after an eight-year hiatus, will take…

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City Council Election 2012: Marilyn Langlois

Marilyn Langlois

“Knock! Knock!” Compared to the red door, the woman’s head and shoulders, blurry through the window, look enormous. The weather outside is ominous, dark and cloudy. “Who’s there?” The door opens. The giant (surprise!) is City Council candidate Marilyn Langlois, and this is the inside fold of a slick red and olive political flier. Don’t…

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City Council Election 2012: Eduardo Martinez

Eduardo Martinez

Eduardo Martinez sits at the front desk of the Richmond Progressive Alliance hunched over a pile of donor thank-you letters. It’s midday and the quiet of the office is punctuated by the hum of vehicles that pass by on Macdonald Avenue and the occasional police siren in the distance. As Martinez picks up the letters…

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Council divided over alleged attack on Booze

Corky Booze speaking from the council dais

With exactly three weeks until the upcoming election, Richmond’s key political players were out in full swing and the council’s division on full display at Tuesday night’s meeting. The main source of tension for the evening was a recent fight between Corky Booze and Richmond Progressive Alliance member David Moore. The much-disputed incident between the…

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Campaign flyer flawed

Bea Roberson Richmond City Council candidate

Seven members of the community listed in a campaign flyer for City Council candidate Bea Roberson as supporting Roberson said last week that they had not explicitly endorsed the candidate. Roberson said she had done her best and, if the information was wrong, “It was not done with malice.” Roberson has been a resident of…

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Gary Bell throws name into Richmond political hat

Gary Bell knows how to make people feel at ease. He also knows a little bit about money and business principles. And at a campaign kickoff Thursday night at the Courtyard Marriott at Hilltop Mall, the president and CEO of Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union in Berkeley declared his intent to bring civility and leadership…

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