Mayor Sheng Thao, DA Pamela Price appear to be on the way out in recall elections

OAKLAND, Calif. -- In the East Bay, voters are currently in favor of recalling two of the highest-profile politicians.

Both the recalls of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao are leading 65% to 35%, with 100% of precincts reporting.

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DA Pamela Price

Price won the 2022 election with roughly 53 percent of the vote and became the first African American woman to hold the county's top prosecutor job.

At the time, she was clear about her reform-minded policies, including not tacking on enhancements to charges in order to win longer prison terms in criminal cases, not charging juveniles as adults and finding alternatives to prison or jail for certain defendants, among other things.

Soon after she took office opponents launched a petition drive and ultimately gathered enough signatures to place her name on a recall ballot, alleging that her progressive reform platform was too soft on criminals and led to increasing crime -- making her the first district attorney in the county's history to face a recall.

If the results hold, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will appoint someone to replace Price until the end of her term in two years. A permanent replacement would be selected by voters in the next regularly scheduled election.

Recall supporters have collectively spent roughly $2.6 million to remove her from office via two primary campaign finance committees -- Save Alameda For Everyone and Supporters of Recall Pamela Price, which has significant financial support from several East Bay police officers' unions, including Oakland's and the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County, along with PG&E and Philip Dreyfuss, a wealthy hedge fund executive and Piedmont resident.

Price and her supporters launched the campaign committees Protect the Win for Public Safety, Oppose the Recall of DA Price, which raised more than $166,000, Protect the Protect the Win for Public Safety, Oppose the Recall of DA Price, which raised more than $272,000.

Almost all the money raised by Re-invest in Fair Elections came from the Heising-Simons Foundation, a Los Altos-based philanthropical organization that supports environmental and human rights causes, among other things.

Spokespeople for the pro-recall and Price campaigns didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mayor Sheng Thao

In Oakland, Mayor Thao also appears to be losing her job.

She has faced similar criticism about her stance on crime, and is under heat for the city's budget deficit and an FBI raid on her property.

"We're not surprised," said recall spokesman Seneca Scott. "We knew all along that Sheng Thao would likely be recalled by an overwhelming margin."

A Thao campaign spokesperson didn't respond to requests for comment.

The campaign to remove her from office was largely predicated on perceptions of Oakland's crime rates and the city's ongoing budget problems.

Recall proponents successfully tapped into Oakland voters' fears about crime, despite recent data showing a 33 percent drop in homicides in Oakland, zero homicides in October and an overall crime rate drop by 37 percent from a year ago, according to the Oakland Police Department.

In her effort to keep her job, Thao's committee, Oaklanders Defending Democracy, raised $120,381, while her opponents' committee, Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao, raised $602,483.

Much of Thao's monetary support came from labor unions, while her opponents were heavily funded by Foundational Oakland Unites, which in turn received all its money, $760,319, from wealthy hedge fund executive and Piedmont resident Philip Dreyfuss.

Based on early results, Thao wasn't able to overcome the spending gap despite painting the recall effort as an undemocratic power grab controlled by one rich out-of-towner meddling in Oakland's civic life.

She also touted her efforts to reduce crime, warned of the potentially chaotic transition to a new mayor if the recall was successful and compiled a list of supporters that included the city's firefighters' union, the influential SEIU 1021 and the Alameda County Democratic Party.

Her opponents, including the Oakland branch of the NAACP and former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf, among others, said her perceived missteps led to her political demise.

Recall supporters said they were upset with her firing of former police chief LeRonne Armstrong, a missed deadline to receive millions in retail theft prevention grant money from the state and the use of one-time money from the sale of the city's ownership of half of the Oakland Coliseum to balance the city's budget.

They said people no longer feel safe in Oakland, that businesses have left over worries about crime and that Thao has failed to put a halt to the city's perceived lawlessness.

Thao was also likely hurt in the polls by an FBI raid of her home that is potentially related to the well-connected Duong family, owners of the city's recycling contractor, California Waste Solutions.

Neither she nor the Duongs have been charged with any crimes and it's unclear exactly what the FBI was looking for. Thao has said she's been told that she's not the center of the investigation.

If the results stand, the president of the Oakland City Council will step in as interim mayor until a special election could be held, likely in April.

The winner of that contest would serve out the remainder of Thao's term -- two more years -- and then would have to stand for re-election.

A possible wrinkle in that plan, however, is that the current president, Nikki Fortunato Bas, is running for a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

If she wins, the council would have to appoint another president, who would then temporarily take over for Thao.

ABC7 News contributed to this story.