Price’s likely recall signals backlash against progressive reform

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price will be recalled, if early results hold after many more ballots are counted in the coming days. About 65% of voters whose ballots have been tallied so far support her ouster. 

According to the Registrar of Voters, there are hundreds of thousands of additional ballots that need to be counted in the coming weeks and results could change. But it’s unlikely the numbers will shift so much that Price can prevail.

In a statement shared by her campaign Wednesday, Price nevertheless encouraged patience before drawing conclusions.

“I am optimistic that when all the votes are counted, we will be able to continue the hard work of transforming our criminal justice system,” she said.

Price is the second Bay Area DA to be ousted in as many years, and the success of the recall election is a victory for a campaign that began in earnest several months after she took office. The recall was part of a broader movement to overhaul local government, with anti-crime activists accusing Price and other progressive politicians of creating dangerous conditions in the East Bay. The effort to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is also significantly ahead, by the same margin as the Price recall.

Supporters of the campaign to kick Price out of office partied Tuesday night at Buffet Fortuna in San Leandro. The event drew about 35 people, some of whom had lost family members to homicides and feel that Price doesn’t adequately represent crime victims. They cheered, clapped and teared up when the first results were released shortly after 8 p.m.

“They said there would not be a recall. They said we wouldn’t get enough signatures to get it on the ballot. We did,” said Carl Chan, an Alameda resident and Oakland Chinatown advocate. He co-led the recall campaign with Brenda Grisham, an Oakland resident and business owner who lost a son to gun violence in Oakland in 2010.

Alameda County’s progressive DA faced scrutiny from the start

A former civil rights lawyer, Price ran in 2022 on a platform of reforming the criminal justice system in Alameda County. That November, Price won the election with 53% of the nearly 431,000 votes cast. She ran against then-Assistant District Attorney Terry Wiley, the candidate endorsed by outgoing DA Nancy O’Malley. O’Malley had been in office since 2009 and took a traditional law-and-order approach to the job.

One of Price’s most prominent early decisions was to put limits on the use of sentencing enhancements, which are additional penalties that can greatly extend prison sentences. Price said that careful consideration of the use of enhancements could curtail racial disparities in incarceration. 

Many victim advocates decried the move, which earned attention following the murder of toddler Jasper Wu, whose family was caught in the middle of a shootout on a freeway. Ultimately, the two men charged in the case were charged with enhancements by Price’s office for being members of gangs, but the family worried they wouldn’t be and lots of news coverage gave the impression the men would avoid punishment.

Price has also received ongoing criticism for turnover in her office after the election and was accused of acting hostile toward reporters and barring a journalist from press conferences. Price’s former spokesperson has also sued her, alleging anti-Asian racism.

In a lengthy sit-down interview with The Oaklandside in September, Price categorically disputed these criticisms and allegations, saying the role of a DA is misunderstood. She described inheriting a mismanaged office with no transition plan and said the recall was an attempt to seize back control from the faction of DA office insiders who favored candidate Wiley, who lost in 2022.

“We walked into an office that was completely unprepared to have new leadership,” Price said. The county was up to a year behind providing compensation to many victims owed it, she said, and her administration prioritized working through that backlog and improving victims’ services. 

Price recall leaders Brenda Grisham and Carl Chan address reporters Tuesday, as supporters hold up signs honoring crime victims. Credit: Amaya Edwards

There was significant overlap between the campaigns to recall Price and Thao this November, with proponents accusing both new officials of encouraging rampant crime and chaotic conditions in Oakland. On social media and in the comment sections of some news websites, Price’s opponents frequently derided her as “Aunty Pam,” referring to a rumor that some people arrested on suspicion of crime viewed the DA as an ally who would not vigorously prosecute them.

As of a year ago, the Alameda County jail population was lower than it has been in 20 years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. But research suggests that district attorneys, including progressive district attorneys, do not have a significant impact on crime levels. Crime in Oakland shot up during the pandemic as it did in many cities, but new data shows murders are down 33% in the city this year.

The recall campaign tremendously outraised the group working to keep Price in office. A large portion of its funding came from Philip Dreyfuss, a Piedmont hedge fund executive, who spent about $1.7 million on local elections this year, including the Thao recall, and yet has largely stayed mum on why he bankrolled these causes.

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters will certify the election in about 30 days. If Price is out, it will be up to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to appoint a successor, who will remain in office until they choose someone. The interim DA would serve until an election is held in 2026.