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Dave Martin
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Subhead
New York, NY — June 9, 2026
The Can-Do Mayor Berkeley’s Adena Ishii is new to the job — and exactly what local government needs.
Adena Ishii didn’t set out to be a groundbreaker. She set out to serve her community. But when the people of Berkeley, California elected her mayor, they made history: Ishii is the city’s first Asian American mayor and first woman of color to hold the office. She was just one month into the job when she sat down with Good Government Show host Dave Martin — fresh off attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors — and the conversation made clear that Berkeley is in very good hands. Ishii came up through the League of Women Voters, organized student budget rallies in Sacramento, and built deep roots in the city over decades. She didn’t stumble into this job. She earned it.
On the issues, Ishii is clear-eyed and candid. Housing and homelessness, public safety, and infrastructure drove her campaign — and she’s already moving. One early priority: reestablishing Berkeley’s sanctuary city status. Another: expanding accessory dwelling units to open up more housing options for students, families, and seniors. She’s also championing a police early-intervention system designed to identify and address potential bias before it becomes a serious problem — an accountability tool, she emphasizes, not an indictment of the department. “It’s not about accountability versus policing,” she says. “We need accountability to build trust.”
Ishii brings a particularly valuable credential to the mayor’s office: years leading the League of Women Voters, including as its youngest-ever and first woman-of-color president at the local league in 107 years. That background shapes how she thinks about elections, civic trust, and voter participation. On election integrity, she’s direct — the safeguards are real, the process is careful, and the people running it are well-trained. On ranked-choice voting, she’s a committed advocate. On low voter turnout, she’s almost personally offended. “The best way to feel like your vote actually matters,” she says, “is to get engaged and see what’s happening.”
What’s most striking about Adena Ishii — one month in, navigating a new office, a mostly-new city council, and a national political headwind — is her groundedness. She doesn’t feel like she’s drinking from the firehose. She takes it one day at a time, stays connected to the community that called her to this work, and keeps her longtime friend and now-staffer Sydney close to keep her honest. She ran as the underdog, won on ranked-choice votes, and is already leaving a mark. “I hope I’m the first of many,” she says. On the evidence so far, Berkeley — and the rest of us watching — have every reason to believe her.
PULL QUOTES
- “The best way to feel like your vote actually matters is to get engaged.”
- “I hope I’m the first of many.”
- “We need accountability to help build trust in our police department.”
- “Good government is a government that’s responsive — that’s actually listening to its people.”
BOILERPLATE
The Good Government Show is produced by the Good Government Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to civic engagement and civic education. Every episode — including this one — extends the Institute’s core mission: demonstrating that government works, that public servants are doing meaningful things, and that civic participation matters. All donations support that mission. Donate at goodgovinstitute.org.