Recall campaigns in the East Bay to oust Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price appear to have won by wide margins in unofficial results updated Wednesday morning.
The effort to recall Thao was approved with 65.1% in favor and 34.8% opposing, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
Recall proponents successfully tapped into Oakland voters’ fears about crime, despite recent data showing a 33% drop in homicides in Oakland, zero homicides in October and an overall crime rate drop by 37% from a year ago, according to the Oakland Police Department.
A Thao campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday night. Thao was elected mayor in 2022 in a ranked-choice election.
The president of the Oakland City Council will step in as interim mayor until a special election can be held, likely in April.
Price recall marks another first for county
The campaign to remove Price from the district attorney’s office won by a similar margin, with 64.7% in favor and 35.2% opposed in unofficial results.
Soon after Price took office, opponents launched a petition drive and ultimately gathered enough signatures to place her name on a recall ballot, maintaining 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.
Price won the 2022 election with roughly 53% of the vote and became the first African American woman to hold the county’s top prosecutor job.
Recall supporters have collectively spent roughly $2.6 million to remove Price 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.