Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata is stepping up his Oakland mayoral campaign, issuing an appeal for volunteers to work the phones for him.

Perata has been building his visibility with a series of cleanups (including this one, wherein KTVU inexplicably seems to think 66th Avenue is downtown), trying to create an engaged, hands-on image to contrast with that of current Mayor Ron Dellums.

Perata’s electoral rivals aren’t letting any grass grow under their feet either (and, no, that’s not a marijuana reference).

City Councilwoman Jean Quan is rallying her campaign volunteers at an office-warming party at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, July 14) at 3237 Grand Ave. And City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan is taking part in a public-safety issues forum at 7 p.m. this Thursday, July 15, in the Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Ave.

Read Perata’s Facebook appeal, after the jump…
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Once again, I wound up with far more detail then we could accommodate in Lisa Vorderbrueggen’s and my story about East Bay folks elected Sunday as delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Berkeley author Ayelet Waldman – who with her husband, author Michael Chabon, has been raising funds and writing praise for Obama – was elected as an Obama delegate from Rep. Barbara Lee’s 9th Congressional District.

“I’m thrilled beyond belief, I am happier than I ever thought – I didn’t realize how much I cared until push came to shove,” Waldman, 43, said Monday.

“This is the first time in either of our lives that we’ve been this excited, this committed, this interested quite frankly,” she said of herself and Chabon, adding that for them 2004’s election was all about defeating George Bush rather than about electing John Kerry. “The opportunity to vote for someone rather than against someone is a profound experience that neither of us has ever felt before.”

“My profoundest hope is that it’s going to be a fun-filled few days – that we’ll have it decided long before, that everyone will have thrown their support behind Barack,” she said, but it if the nomination comes down to a battle on the convention floor, “then I want to be there for that too.”

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Former President Bill Clinton will headline a cocktail reception tomorrow night at the Rotunda Building in downtown Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza to raise funds for the presidential campaign of his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY. It’s $500 a head, or $2,300 to get into the VIP reception starting half an hour before the 7 p.m. main event.

The event’s co-chairs include Clear Channel Outdoor executive and noted Democratic politico Michael Colbruno; Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums; attorney Kenneth Katzoff; state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland; Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland; and developer Phil Tagami.

And among the hosts for the evening are Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente; Oakland City Councilwoman Jean Quan; Unity Council CEO Gilda Gonzales; Oakland Unified School District board vice president Kerry Hamill; and others. See the whole skinny here.

Surely they’re hoping the money they raise will help turn around what’s been a not-so-hot week for the candidate, what with a debate performance on Tuesday night that seemed less than stellar.

Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic party chairman and longtime friend of the Clintons who now is Hillary Clinton’s national campaign chair, told me a few weeks ago that Bill Clinton has an extensive travel schedule set for this fourth quarter, raising funds on his wife’s behalf. “Every day he’s doing something for us,” McAuliffe said, calling the former president “probably the most popular man in the world today.”

UPDATE @ 12:55 P.M. THURSDAY: The Sacramento Bee today reports that voters in California strongly believe former President Bill Clinton should play an active role in his wife’s bid for the White House and also think he would be an asset in a Hillary Clinton administration, a new Field Poll revealed Wednesday. But the poll of 579 registered voters conducted Oct. 11-21 found comparatively lukewarm views on the Democratic Party front-runner herself.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, stood today with local workers who say they’ve faced retaliation from employers for trying to unionize their workplaces. An event at the Oakland Public Library’s Dimond branch highlighted the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007, introduced by Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Martinez, to reform the union election process and prevent workers’ intimidation or harassment. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton; Assembly members Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, and Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley; and Oakland City Council member Jean Quan also attended.