Bay Area Voters Recall Big City Mayor, County’s District Attorney

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao speaks onstage at the TAAF Heritage Month Summit at The Glasshouse in New York City on May 2, 2024. JP Yim/Getty Images for The Asian American Foundation

Early results suggest that Oakland voters chose to recall Mayor Sheng Thao and that residents countywide in Alameda voted to remove District Attorney Pamela Price, which some say reflects a desire to get tougher on crime.

Thao appears to have lost her bid to keep her position leading Oakland by a wide margin, with 65 percent of voters choosing to remove her from office, according to unofficial preliminary results.

Supporters of the recall efforts said they were mobilized by a concern for public safety—citing drug addiction, theft, homelessness, and other issues.

Some also pointed to Oakland’s budget deficit of nearly $177 million as a reason they wanted to change leaders.

Frustration mounted over the past few years as increases in motor vehicle thefts, shoplifting, and other crimes have affected the community.

Businesses and restaurants—including Denny’s, In-N-Out, Starbucks, and others—fled the area after serial offenders negatively affected their ability to protect employees and customers, according to statements from companies that left this year.

Thao’s supporters—including an organization known as Oaklanders Defending Democracy—said the recall could prove detrimental to the city.

“The recall effort against Mayor Sheng Thao not only threatens Oakland’s progress but risks plunging the city into political chaos at a critical time,” the group stated on its website.

They expressed concern with the process and questioned the impact of the disruption on city leadership.

“This recall threatens to undo the strides we’ve made, jeopardizing the city’s future at a time when stable, consistent leadership is more important than ever,” the campaign wrote. “Oaklanders deserve consistent leadership that can build on the work already in motion, not political turmoil that sets the city back.”

If the recall is finalized, the city council president will take the mayor’s place until a special election gives voters a choice—which by law must occur within 120 days.

A mayoral election will again take place in 2026, as regularly scheduled.

District Attorney Recalled

About 65 percent of voters chose to recall Price, according to preliminary results.

If her recall is finalized, the county’s board of supervisors will appoint a district attorney in the first months of the new year—with Price excluded from consideration.

Voters will get to choose in 2026 if they want to keep the appointed individual or choose a new district attorney.

Price faced mounting criticism, including from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, after she allegedly failed to utilize resources made available by the state to prosecute criminal defendants.

“It was clear to me that there wasn’t a sincere commitment to follow through on the offer,” Newsom said during a July press conference in Oakland in response to a question from The Epoch Times.

The state offered assistance to Price’s office after crime spiked in 2023.

In Oakland, the largest city in the county, violent crime rose by 21 percent, robbery increased by 38 percent, and auto theft jumped by 45 percent. Nearly 30,000 vehicles were either stolen or burglarized in the city during the year, according to statistics from the Oakland Police Department.

Fewer than 63 percent of all cases presented by law enforcement in 2023 were charged, according to the district attorney’s office’s 2023 annual report.

The campaign to recall Price, Save Alameda for Everyone—better known as SAFE—submitted in March nearly 123,000 signed petitions to give voters the choice to remove the district attorney.

One organizer said the successful recall is a step in the right direction.

Price warned in recent weeks that her recall could destabilize the county.

“Are we going to let me do my job, or are we going to plunge the system into chaos?” Price said during an Oct. 17 rally. “If this recall is successful ... this community will have no voice and no vote.”

Some critical of the recall efforts suggested that the process is antidemocratic, but supporters say the recalls are “an example of democracy in action” and point to the 19 states and at least 30 local jurisdictions that permit voters to remove elected officials from office.