Meet Oakland's New Mayor: Jean Quan

Calling this an upset might upset those who previously upset something.

Jean Quan, city council member in Oakland, defeated former state Sen. Don Perata with 50.98 percent of the vote to Perata's 49.02 percent.

Perata has scheduled a news conference for this morning at 11am. He included a document espousing the perils of ranked-choice voting. So, you know, what he'll talk about will be a complete surprise.

Quan is the first woman mayor of Oakland.

The city -- and the entire Bay area -- has been concentrating on this race -- mostly to improve math skills when it comes to second, third and fourth-place ballot options for candidates.

Ranked-choice voting allows people to, you know, rank their choices. If no candidate scores more than 50 percent on the first ballot, then the recounting and tabulating begins. So the second place finisher has an increased chance of winning as other candidates fall out of favor with voters.

Simple, right?

More on this in the morning. Until the next election we have plenty of time to figure out this ranked-choice thing. As well as time to figure out how Perata spent all that dough and still lost.

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