November 2022 Election Candidate Endorsements

Sarah Syed and Alfred Twu headshots

AC Transit Ward 3 Candidate Sarah Syed (left) and At-Large District Candidate Alfred Twu (right) are both endorsed by Seamless Bay Area.

The November 2022 election is Seamless Bay Area’s first cycle making candidate endorsements. This year, we are pleased to endorse two outstanding candidates: Sarah Syed for AC Transit Ward 3 and Alfred Twu for the At-Large AC Transit District. We encourage Seamless Bay Area supporters to support these candidates’ campaigns by signing up on their websites for volunteer opportunities, and making campaign donations. 

Read on to learn about our process of making endorsements, why we’re supporting Sarah and Alfred, and about the candidates in other races for which we didn’t make an endorsement.

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In our first ever candidate endorsement cycle, we chose to focus on our region’s two elected transit agency boards, AC Transit and BART. Seamless Bay Area won’t be endorsing candidates for other local offices, such as cities and counties. Previously, we have endorsed transit funding ballot measures including Caltrain’s Measure RR in 2020. 

Candidate endorsements are part of our strategy to educate voters and candidates about the policy issues that matter most to Seamless Bay Area, and to champion those transit board candidates who we believe are most likely to be effective in advancing a well-coordinated, rider-friendly, equitable, frequent and well-funded public transition system.

To educate voters and candidates and to prepare to make endorsements, Seamless Bay Area partnered with East Bay Transit Riders, Bike East Bay and other groups to host candidate forums and to create and send our region’s first-ever Sustainable Transportation Candidate Questionnaire. Together with our partners, we solicited questionnaires for all of the contested races for  BART and AC Transit Board seats: 

  • AC Transit At-Large District

  • AC Transit Ward 3 (East Oakland, Alameda, North San Leandro)

  • AC Transit Ward 4 (Hayward, South San Leandro, Ashland/Cherryland/San Lorenzo)

  • BART Board District 6 (Fremont, Newark, Union City)

You can find the videos of our candidate forums here. You can find the questionnaire responses here

Seamless’ decision on whether to endorse - and who to endorse - in each of these races took into account a range of factors, including both candidate policy positions and candidate qualifications.

The policy positions we considered included those areas most important to Seamless Bay Area’s mission, including:

  • Robust funding for public transportation

  • Customer experience and ridership growth

  • Affordability/equity/accessibility

  • Getting buses out of traffic

  • Transit governance that can lead a well-coordinated system accountable to riders

In assessing candidate qualifications, we considered past board experience and civic leadership, relevant professional experience and expertise, lived experience as a transit rider, connections to populations who use transit, and endorsements from other leaders and organizations.

Recommendations were developed by Seamless Bay Area’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, and then confirmed by the Seamless Bay Area Board.

Based on this process, Seamless Bay Area is making two endorsements this cycle: Sarah Syed in the AC Transit Ward 3 race and Alfred Twu in the AC Transit At-Large District race. Seamless Bay Area opted to make no endorsement in AC Transit Ward 4 and BART Board District 6 races. As described in further detail in the remainder of this post, in each of those races, it was not clear based on the questionnaire and the forum who would be the more effective candidate in advancing Seamless Bay Area’s goals. Candidates each had strengths and weaknesses, but no clear better candidate emerged through our process. 

Finally, in the uncontested BART and AC Transit races, while Seamless Bay Area did not solicit candidate questionnaires or conduct candidate forums. However based on their past board experience and record of strong support for seamless policy issues, we also wish to also express our support for Janice Li, Robert Raburn, and Mark Foley’s campaigns for re-election to the BART Board.

We hope that this information will be of value to Bay Area voters in making informed decisions this November. We encourage Seamless Bay Area supporters to get engaged with endorsed candidates volunteering, making donations, spreading the word to your networks, and - of course - voting.

AC Transit Ward 3 (East Oakland, Alameda, North San Leandro)

Endorsement: Sarah Syed, https://www.sarahfortransit.com/

Seamless Bay Area is pleased to endorse Sarah Syed for AC Transit Ward 3.  Sarah Syed has extensive professional expertise with more than 15 years of public and private sector experience delivering local and regional scale transportation projects including working at BART, VTA and LA Metro.

According to her questionnaire, Ms Syed intends to advocate for systemic and structural changes in how the state and region invests in transit operations as a key strategy to address the fiscal cliff.  

She supports fare, schedule, and wayfinding integration as strategies to help restoring transit ridership, supporting recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and supports doing so in ways that are complementary with local transit planning and organization. She supports multiple strategies for integrated, affordable fares.

Based on her professional experience, she has good ideas about reforming project delivery by building the capacity and skills of project planners, accurate and effective public communication, and pursuing repeatable design and quick iterations.

Her endorsements include the Alameda County Democratic Party, the Sierra Club, and Elsa Ortiz, who has represented Ward 3 on the AC Transit board for 16 years as well as State Senator Nancy Skinner, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, and San Leandro Mayor Pauline Cutter.

We believe she will be a major asset to the AC Transit Board and an effective champion of a more integrated, rider-focused system. 

Her main opponent, Stewart Chen, did not fill out our candidate questionnaire, and despite agreeing to participate in our candidate forum, did not attend, and did not offer a reason why.


AC Transit At-Large seat

Endorsement: Alfred Twu, https://www.alfredtwu.org/

Seamless Bay Area is proud to endorse Alfred Twu, a longtime champion of seamless transit. According to Alfred’s questionnaire, they use transit almost every day, for getting to work, shopping, and other activities, primarily using AC Transit and BART, and occasionally Muni, VTA, WestCAT, and County Connection. They have a robust civic background in related policy issues as a planning commissioner, transit and environmental advocate.

Alfred strongly supports integrated fares, schedules and wayfinding, including supporting less local control in order to achieve a system that is integrated for riders.  

To address the transit agency fiscal cliff, they support state and regional funding focusing on transit operations, and they support stable funding sources such as parcel taxes. In the long run, more homes and businesses near transit will help provide ridership and a tax base. 

Regarding access to transit, they would focus on walking and bicycling as the main feeders to transit, and want to see a focus on the rider’s entire trip. They support level boarding platforms similar to the TEMPO BRT line and bus bulbs that allow the bus to get closer to the curb would help people walking to the bus. 

Finally, Alfred is well connected to numerous rider and community groups. Their campaign has been endorsed by many elected supporters of seamless transit including Jovanka Beckles and Jean Walsh on the AC Transit Board, and Rebecca Saltzman, Janice Li and Bevan Dufty on the BART board, as well as a plethora of elected officials at the city and state level. 

AC Transit Ward 4 (Hayward, South San Leandro, Ashland/Cherryland/San Lorenzo)

No Endorsement

Seamless Bay Area is not making an endorsement in Ward 4.  Both candidates have different strengths, and neither candidate emerged as clearly preferable in the pursuit of Seamless Bay Area’s mission. Murphy McCalley was appointed by the AC Transit board to fill the seat which was vacated by Mark Williams in early 2022.  

Candidate: Murphy McCalley 

Murphy McCalley has a wealth of professional experience in a career including financing for public sector projects, consulting and staff work for public sector agencies including San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board and LA County Transportation Commission. 

Regarding transit funding and addressing the fiscal cliff, McCalley’s response in the candidate forum focused on belt-tightening to live within the agency’s means, and pursuing state, regional and local operating funds. 

McCalley supports an integrated transit system, and would want to assess the trade offs of giving up local control to achieve an integrated system. He felt that the focus of efforts to integrate transit should be on funding, and he felt that MTC was doing a good job of designing a regional wayfinding network.

Regarding access to transit, McCalley favors microtransit especially for seniors and people with disabilities, as well as bike racks and other bike storage at key transit locations.

McCalley grew up relying on transit, and currently lives in an area of Castro Valley that does not have bus service.

McCalley is endorsed by outgoing board chair Elsa Ortiz, and current board members Peeples and Young.  He is endorsed by elected officials including Nate Miley, Alameda County Supervisor District 4, and elected city leaders including  Deborah Cox, City of San Leandro; Barbara Halliday, Mayor City of Hayward, Sara Lamnin, Hayward City Council, and Asm. Bill Quirk.

Campaign website:  https://votemccalley2022.com/

Candidate: Barisha Spriggs 

Barisha Spriggs identifies herself as a bus rider in the first words on her campaign website. She uses AC Transit and BART for transportation and does not own a car.  

Spriggs’ campaign materials highlight her political background as an elected member of the Alameda County Democratic Party and appointed delegate/Executive Board of the California Democratic Party. Her background includes roles as a political organizer and a teacher. 

Regarding transit funding and the agency’s fiscal cliff, Spriggs wants to focus on state, regional and local funding, and on restoring transit ridership, according to her responses in the questionnaire and forum. 

On the subject of seamless transit, Spriggs supports coordinated fare and payment, transit network, customer information, and accessibility to create a system that is easy to understand and accessible to riders. She clearly states she is willing to cede some local control in the interest of achieving a seamless transit network.

Regarding access to transit, Barisha Spriggs cites her advocacy to improve walking and bicycling access to transit, and notes her leadership in helping secure $20 Million in funding for the Ashland East 14th Street Phase II Corridor Improvement Project, a project that will upgrade transit, walking, and bicycle amenities to improve accessibility and safety. 

Spriggs is endorsed by several transit board members who are champions of seamless transit including Jovanka Beckles on the AC Transit board, and Lateefah Simon and Liz Ames on the BART board. She is endorsed by multiple city council members from Hayward, San Leandro, Oakland and Berkeley, and other state, county, school board and other elected leaders

Campaign website:  https://www.spriggs4actransit.com/

BART Board District 6 (Fremont, Newark, Union City)

No Endorsement

Seamless is not making an endorsement in the BART board D6 race. Overall, the BART board has been a strong supporter of seamlessness, voting early on to support the Seamless Transit Principles, strongly encouraging regional fare integration, regional approaches to transit funding, and voted to support SB917, the Seamless Transit Transformation Act.  Both active candidates are on a path that would continue this strong support for Seamless transit.

Candidate: Liz Ames

Incumbent Liz Ames has consistently been aligned with her colleagues on the BART board in support of seamless transit.

Ames strongly supports integrating transit fares and schedules. She supports regional decision-making with a lower level of agency control and expresses interest in potential agency consolidations, in order to achieve an integrated system for riders and to make more rapid progress on integration initiatives than the current consensus-based process.  She supports regional approaches to transit funding, with projects and programs to speed buses and trains and advance integrated and affordable fares. 

Ames has relevant lived experience and professional experience. She was a transit commuter for many years using Caltrain, BART and the Dumbarton bus, and uses BART now part-time for work, errands and entertainment. Ames has relevant professional background as a civil engineer which informs her approach to the important topic of project delivery reform.

Given all of these strengths in policy issues important to Seamless, it would seem logical for Seamless to endorse Director Ames. However, our criteria also include effectiveness as a board member and endorsements showing the confidence of organizations and leaders. In these areas we observe that Director Ames has room for improvement. 

Even on issues where Ames was in agreement with her colleagues on the board, she appears to be forging her own path rather than working with others to advance initiatives. In board discussions, she often raises topics that are important to the transportation system of the region and state, but are not on topic to the agenda item at hand.  We don’t expect board members to be in unanimous agreement on all issues, but want to see endorsed candidates work collaboratively with peers on the board.

Campaign website:  http://www.ames4change.com

Candidate: Lance Nishihara 

Challenger Lance Nishihira does not have specific professional or civic experience with public transportation, but does have governance experience as a member of the New Haven Unified School District which serves communities in Union City and South Hayward, and relevant professional background as a technology user experience professional.

He is a regular transit user, taking BART, VTA, SF Muni, and ACE depending on the needs of the day.

With regard to seamless transit, Nishihara supports fare, schedule and wayfinding integration. According to the questionnaire, he “would need to understand the pros and cons of the approaches that might result in reduced control to answer more accurately” about whether to accept some reduced agency control to achieve a seamless system.

With regard to addressing the fiscal cliff, Nishihara does support a regional transit funding measure and other funding sources such as parking revenue and leasing BART-owned land. 

Regarding several topics in the questionnaire, Nishihira’s responses indicated that he would need to learn more about the topic, including strategies to address the fiscal cliff affecting BART and other agencies, strategies to improve the delivery of capital projects, and potential institutional options for regional transit coordination. 

As an educated professional with a record in public sector governance on the school board, we believe that Nishihara has the ability to get up to speed to be able to serve effectively on the BART board.  

Despite having less domain experience, Nishihara, has the endorsement of a majority of the BART board, including other champions of seamless transit including Directors Saltzman, Raburn, Simon, Li and Dufty, as well as a long list of local, county, and state elected leaders.  

Campaign Website:  https://lance4bart.org