Ron Dellums
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"Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums" served as Oakland's forty-eighth (and third African-American) mayor. From 1971 to 1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the United States House of Representatives/U.S. House of Representatives from California's 9th congressional district/Northern California's 9th Congressional District, after which he worked as a lobbyist in Washington D.C..

Dellums was born into a family of labor organizers, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps before serving on the Berkeley, California, City Council. Dellums was the first African American elected to Congress from Northern California and the first openly socialism/socialist successful non-incumbent Congressional candidate since World War II. His politics earned him a place on Nixon's Enemies List/President Nixon's enemies list.

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Now I choose to make a personal decision and to empower myself to regain my life, ... It's important for me to now move on.

To give our children back their dreams, to give our workers back their work.

Failure is not a crime, ... The crime is not trying.

There is nothing wrong with being an honorable lobbyist.

I want balance in my life.

It's criminal that we turn a blind eye to poverty. The solutions are multidimensional. You have to deal with health care, housing, jobs, education, crime and social justice. Ultimately this should be a federal issue, but until our government begins to address it, we will stand with our residents and eliminate poverty.

If you're going to use the public resources, you need the public benefit.

If Ron Dellums running for mayor gives you hope, then let's get on with it.