Two recalls in Oakland show frustration over crime ‘boiling over’

OAKLAND— When Sheng Thao was sworn in as mayor of Oakland in January 2023, a series of feel-good stories followed, often featuring glowing portraits of the mayor in front of sun-drenched city landmarks.

The new mayor of oakland was, as the The New York Times noticed thissuddenly the most prominent Hmong elected official in the country. The Washingtonpost interviewed Thao about her journey from homeless young mother to CEO of the city. Her election, the Guardian said, seemed to be represent a progressive victory in a region where technology billionaires wanted to pull politicians to the right.

But oh, how the political mood has changed. On Tuesday, Thao faces a recall election financed in large part by a wealthy hedge fund manager who lives just outside of Oakland in the small town of Piedmont. Many political observers expect her to lose her seat, despite still receiving support from some of Oakland’s most powerful elected officials, including Rep. Barbara Lee and Sen. Nancy Skinner.

Voters in Oakland and across Alameda County will also weigh in on the recall of Dist. Atty. Pamela Price, the first Black woman to hold the position, is less than two years into her six-year term.

The grievances the recalls have filed against Thao are numerous, and include accusations of fiscal mismanagement and even the inability to keep the Oakland A’s baseball team in the city.

Thao has said that she is “working tirelessly to build the future of Oakland” and that she has “addressed rising crime, homelessness and budget issues head-on.”

The recall effort against Price, a former civil rights attorney, was launched within months of taking office. She had campaigned on a platform that included promises to reform the justice system, end the “overcriminalization” of young people and hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct.

Critics have charged that she has mismanaged her office. Price has countered that the recall is fundamentally undemocratic and represents an attempt to overturn the will of the voters. Her campaign spokesperson, Venus Gist, said the recall is more than a local issue. “It’s part of a broader national agenda,” she said, which also targeted progressive district attorneys in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Still, a central theme in both Bay Area reminders is the perception among many voters that violence and property crime have spiraled out of control. Statistics showing that violent crime is declining have done little to assuage that sentiment.

“Lives have been lost, property destroyed, businesses closed, and fear and collective trauma are daily occurrences for Oaklanders,” Thao’s recall notice said. stated on their website.

The campaign to recall Price, meanwhile, is campaigning on the message “Bring Safety Back to Alameda County.”

The recall efforts of progressive politicians here in California’s deepest blue heartland come at a time when voters statewide appear ready to crack down on crime. A UC Berkeley/LA Times poll performed last month found that a solid majority of voters statewide support Proposition 36, which would impose stiffer penalties for repeat theft and offenses involving the deadly drug fentanyl. The initiative, which Governor Gavin Newsom opposes, is expected to cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually in increased prison spending — but voters don’t seem to care.

Oakland has become a flashpoint statewide for fear of crime. Just a few years ago the city was heralded as the next chic, hip thing, with its tree-lined streets full of new boutiques, bustling restaurants and rents so high that there was a anti-gentrification backlash. Today, parts of the city of 450,000 feel like ground zero for a dystopian version of California. The number of unhoused residents has increased explosively. Restaurants are closing and car break-ins are so common that people complain that thieves sometimes steal worthless items, like old rags.

became governor in February announced he sent 120 CHP officers to Oakland to try to combat shoplifting, which many believed had become brazen. “What is happening in this beautiful city and surrounding area is alarming and unacceptable,” Newsom said.

Many, including a spokesperson for Mayor Thao, say things have improved, but not enough for some locals.

“I was having lunch at Lake Merritt not long ago,” recalls Eric Jaye, a veteran Democratic political consultant from San Francisco, “and someone was walking up and down in broad daylight breaking into cars.”

Oakland voters strolling the path around the sparkling blue waters of Lake Merritt on a recent sunny afternoon raised crime again and again as a pressing issue — regardless of whether or not they supported Thao’s recall.

Setenay Bozkurt, 51, who was walking with her friend and her very well-behaved goldendoodle Billie, said she plans to vote ‘No’ on the recall — but only because she fears the disruption and resulting special election would cost the cash-strapped people city money that they can hardly afford to lose. She added that she witnessed numerous car burglaries this past winter and spring.

Her walking partner, who would only give her first name, Belinda, said her vote was ‘yes’. “I don’t like what’s happening in the city,” she said. “Businesses are closing. Crime. People are afraid to go out.”

A few blocks away, UC Berkeley student Ali Momhammed, 22, who grew up in Oakland and still lives there, said he also planned to support the recall.

“I don’t know if you’re walking around here,” he said, pointing to the sleepy streets between downtown and Lake Merritt, where many businesses are closed or appear to have no customers on what should have been a busy weekday afternoon. “But do you see what I see?”

The Thao campaign points out – correctly – that the mayor took office amid a post-pandemic crime wave, and crime rates have begun to decline, helped in part, the Thao campaign says, by programs the mayor has put in place.

“The entire (recall) campaign was built on a misconception that no longer works,” said William Fitzgerald, spokesman for the anti-recall campaign.

“Things are getting better in Oakland,” he added, noting that “agents of chaos,” including the mayor’s political opponents and a hedge fund executive, are pushing their own agenda on the city.

On Wednesday, the Thao campaign published an “open letter” to the executive, Philip Dreyfuss, accusing him of trying to “buy our city government.” The San Francisco Chronicle reported: Campaign finance reports show Dreyfus has poured more than $1 million into local races, including the recall of Thao and District Attorney Price.

Dreyfuss lives in Piedmont, a small wealthy enclave of trees and mansions surrounded by the city of Oakland. In her letter, Thao accused him of destabilizing the city and trying to “hijack our democracy,” not because he cares about public safety, but because he wants the city and its port to be more open to coal projects run by his hedge fund are pushed. Farallon Capital.

Dreyfuss did not respond to a request for comment and he has not spoken to other local media. But a recall campaign spokesperson, Seneca Scott, denied that Dreyfuss supported a mayoral recall as a backdoor way to advance his business interests.

“Why does he care?” said Scott. “He has five children. He has a wife. He has a family. He doesn’t want to move.”

Other issues looming in the race include an FBI investigation that involved a raid on Thao’s home in June, right around the time recall holders submitted enough signatures to put the recall measure on the ballot. The same day, the home of a waste company official who contracts with the city of Oakland and has made campaign contributions to Thao and other elected officials was raided.

Thao has said she was told she was not a target. She gave a tearful speech days after the raid, saying: “I want to be crystal clear. I didn’t do anything wrong. I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me.”

She also questioned the FBI’s tactics, saying, “This wouldn’t have happened this way if I had been rich, if I had gone to elite private schools or if I had come from money.”

Political experts said the law enforcement raid doesn’t appear to be a major factor in the recall — but the spectacle of the FBI entering the mayor’s home certainly doesn’t help assuage voters’ concerns about crime and chaos.

“It’s been years, a decade of frustration finally boiling over,” said Jim Ross, an Oakland-based political consultant who doesn’t work for either party.

The two recalls, he added, represent a new trend in California politics — one that could soon take hold in the rest of the state. Just as the Bay Area pioneered gay marriage, higher minimum wages and smoking regulations early on, voters can now expect recalls funded by wealthy individuals with deep stakes in local politics.

In recent years, a group of wealthy San Francisco residents money deposited to recall that city’s progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, and three school board members. The phenomenon has already been noted elsewhere. In Northern California’s rural Shasta County, in 2022, a wealthy former resident, furious with county officials, helped finance a recall from one of the provincial regulators.

“We live in this world now where one rich guy can fund a recall,” Ross said. “You have billionaires who are willing to spend enormous amounts of money to dictate policy in cities.”