Sheng Thao considered using Oakland’s funds to cover her campaign debt, new documents suggest

OAKLAND – Nearly six months after Sheng Thao took office, she still owed tens of thousands of dollars to the campaign manager who had helped deliver her a victory.

Long-established state law prohibits politicians from using public funds to finance election campaigns, but in newly released records, Thao’s top staffer said her boss had considered the idea.

In a text message sent in June 2023, former chief of staff Leigh Hanson indicated the mayor wanted to use $50,000 from her office’s budget to make good on the campaign debt.

Julie Caskey, the campaign manager whom Thao owed money, eventually became a city employee, but in a statement this week she denied having any knowledge of a plan to funnel public dollars toward paying off the debt, which she said is still owed to her.

The revelation by Hanson, an offhand mention during a private conversation, is included in thousands of pages of city records seized last year by federal prosecutors and publicly released this week.

Thao, whom voters removed from office last November, has been accused along with her romantic partner, Andre Jones, of being bribed with political favors and money by father-and-son business partners David and Andy Duong, in exchange for access to lucrative city contracts.

The newly released documents help piece together the work of Thao’s early administration, including conversations Thao directed between her alleged bribers and top city officials. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty and face federal prison time if convicted.

Thao’s debt to Caskey is not directly related to the federal corruption case, in which prosecutors accuse Thao and Jones of accepting money from co-conspirators in the late stages before the 2022 election.

But Hanson’s reference to Thao’s debt further sheds light on how the new mayor appeared to be struggling to tie up loose ends from a hard-fought electoral win the year before, when she beat Loren Taylor by 677 votes in a ranked-choice election.

And it reflects Thao’s apparent willingness to blur the line between her political alliances and her governance of Oakland.

In text messages sent on June 29, 2023, Hanson and a political advisor, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, discussed how to pay for an “executive coach” for Mayor Thao.

When Schlesinger suggested using city money, Hanson noted that the mayor’s office had a tight budget and that Thao wanted to use much of it to pay off a campaign debt, according to records of their text exchange.

“We have $80,000 for the whole year,” Hanson replied. “And she (Thao) wants to give $50 (thousand) of it to her campaign manager who she never paid to be a ‘consultant.’”

Caskey was Thao’s campaign manager in the 2022 election. Not long after Hanson’s text exchange, Caskey was hired as the director of climate partnerships in the mayor’s office — a role that she served from October 2023 to December 2024.

The most recently available campaign finance records from the 2022 election show Thao still owed Caskey $58,488 for consulting work — what is left from an obligation that initially was closer to $80,000.

In a statement responding to written questions, Caskey confirmed that amount but denied having any awareness of Hanson’s texts to Batista Schlesinger.

“This is news to me,” Caskey said. “I have no knowledge of anyone suggesting that I be paid money from the mayor’s office budget to resolve her campaign debt and I would never have accepted that — that is not legal or ethical.”

The law in question, a regulation of the Fair Political Practices Commission, prohibits “the payment of public moneys, in the form of matching funds or cash subsidies, for the public financing of elections.”

“I am still owed almost $60K for running her 2022 campaign,” Caskey added in her statement, “and I have continuously sought payment from the former Mayor for what I am owed.”

Thao’s attorney, Jeff Tsai, declined to comment on the newly released records.

Hanson, who did not respond to an interview request, remains employed by the city as the chief of staff to Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, who is serving as the interim mayor until Oakland voters select a permanent replacement to Thao in a special April 15 election.

Thao’s tenure was tense from the start, as Oakland struggled to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and the mayor bitterly feuded with her political enemies.

Hanson arrived to Oakland in early 2023 from Pittsburgh, Pa., where she had worked for the mayor of Pittsburgh. She quickly came to assume a large share of the office’s day-to-day responsibilities, helping manage Thao’s public profile and City Hall dealings.

She sat at the bargaining table in an unsuccessful effort to keep the A’s baseball franchise in town and held a lead role in selling Oakland’s share of the Coliseum to save the city’s two-year budget — a fraught deal for which the mayor received widespread criticism.

The records turned over to federal prosecutors — and released this week — indicate that Hanson and Batista Schlesinger appeared to share a close bond in 2023, with the chief of staff offering up numerous unvarnished appraisals of her City Hall colleagues.

In November 2023, weeks after Caskey was hired as a staffer, Hanson updated Batista Schlesinger that “the useless campaign manager finally snuck into payroll,” adding that she “is irritating me to no end.”

Hanson claimed Thao “went around me to the finance director and told her to do it or there would be consequences.” Hanson added that Thao owed $80,000 to the campaign manager, who she said “f—– up all the finances and still hasn’t resolved it.”

“The liabilities abound,” Hanson texted.

“Send her clips about Eric Adams,” replied Batista Schlesinger, noting the New York City mayor who became the target of a headline-grabbing corruption probe. “All catches up eventually.”