James Chang

In the race for Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board, the Community Power Slate — which includes James Chang, Paola Laverde, John Selawsky, María Poblet and Soli Alpert — won the available seats as of press time at 2 a.m.

This midterm election season, many Berkeley City Council candidates and city officials made contributions to other candidates’ campaigns, according to documents obtained through NetFile.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín announced his first-preference endorsements for the Berkeley City Council elections, recommending Igor Tregub for District 1, Councilmember Kate Harrison for District 4 and Rigel Robinson for District 7, but Arreguín did not endorse any candidate for District 8.

Berkeley is in the midst of a dire housing crisis, and now more than ever, the city’s Rent Stabilization Board has an incredibly important role to play in regulating rents and protecting tenants’ rights. This November, Berkeley voters have the opportunity to elect five new commissioners to the board. Berkeley needs commissioners who are going to fight for tenants’ rights. And those candidates are Alpert, Chang, Laverde, Poblet and Selawsky.

Five of the candidates — James Chang, Judy Hunt, Paola Laverde, María Poblet and John Selawsky – have prior experience as rent board commissioners. Only three — Soli Alpert, David Buchanan and William “Three Hundred” Caldeira — have not previously served on the board.

The city of Berkeley swore in two UC Berkeley students into city government commissioner positions Friday.

Candidates running for the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board in the upcoming November elections gathered at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters to answer prewritten and audience questions about affordable housing and landlord-tenant relations Wednesday evening.

California’s candidates for lieutenant governor — state Senator Ed Hernandez and former U.S. ambassador to Hungary Eleni Kounalakis — spoke about college affordability, capacity and access at a moderated interview hosted by the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Tuesday night.

Along with current District 7 City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who endorsed Robinson earlier this month, District 8 City Councilmember Lori Droste and District 3 City Councilmember Ben Bartlett also endorsed Robinson.

Since she was sworn in in March 2017, Harrison has worked on multiple issues, including affordable housing, homelessness, police reform and environmental work, she said. She added that she is running for re-election to continue to work on these issues.