Oaklandside: Recall opponents gather to defend Oakland mayor and Alameda County DA

For months now, the campaigns seeking to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price have barreled ahead, dominating local and national headlines, raising huge amounts of money, and holding numerous rallies. Both campaigns have managed to draw enough support in the form of voters’ signatures to ensure their place on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Now, supporters of the DA and the mayor are organizing to push back.

A newly formed coalition of Oakland and Alameda County residents, activists, nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups, and Democratic clubs gathered Saturday in deep East Oakland to plan how to oppose the recall campaigns.

With roughly 100 people congregating inside At Thy Word Ministries Church, the “Respect Our Vote: No Recalls” organizing meeting featured speakers who gave rebuttals to the narrative that all Oaklanders want Thao and Price — both progressive officials and women of color — out of office. Thao and Price did not attend the meeting.

Longtime Oakland political activist Pamela Drake and civil rights attorney Walter Riley organized the event. “This is not just a public safety issue,” Drake told The Oaklandside. “This is an oligarchy issue.”

Drake was referring to the large amounts of money a handful of people have spent helping both recall campaigns qualify for the ballot. During the meeting, attendees expressed concerns about Foundational Oakland Unites, a political action committee that received $605,000 from Piedmont resident and financier Philip Dreyfuss between January and June, according to campaign disclosure statements. Of the $605,000 that Foundational Oakland Unites raised, $480,000 went to help pay bills incurred by the campaign seeking to recall Thao.

Dreyfuss has also contributed significantly toward the recall effort against Price. A political action committee called Supporters of Recall Pamela Price, which Dreyfuss helped form, received almost $400,000 from him to help pay for signature gathering, in addition to a $200,000 loan, according to a campaign disclosure.

“Those recall signatures … were paid for by big outside money that has a track record of orchestrating and funding recall elections against progressive-leaning candidates,” Mariano Contreras, member of the Latino Task Force and co-chair of the African American Latino Action Alliance, said during the meeting. “We are seeing the use of fear and misinformation to attract spokespeople to promote attacks and charges that are nothing more than smoke screens to roll back progressive alliances that have been built in our noble government.”

Other speakers at the rally included B. K. Woodson Sr., pastor and founder of the Bay Area Christian Connection; Stewart Chen, president of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council; Jess Inson, lead organizing fellow for Oakland Rising Action; and Chaney Turner, chair of the city of Oakland’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

Chen, a longtime Oakland Chinatown business owner, said he believes attempts to blame Thao and Price for crime in Oakland are largely misplaced. He said high-profile cases, such as the death of 23-month-old Jasper Wu in a shooting on Interstate 880 and the fatal shooting of Uber driver Kon “Patrick” Fung in Oakland’s Little Saigon neighborhood, occurred before Price and Thao took office.

“Remember, both of our electives were sworn in in January [2023],” Chen said at the event. “Did [the recall supporters] give them enough time to do the promises they set out to do?”

Inson outlined a four-point action plan, which includes spreading the word about the coalition, inviting fellow community members to volunteer, organizing ballot parties so neighbors can complete their ballots together, and returning ballots early. She said Oakland Rising Action is seeking 500 volunteers to complete 1,000 volunteer shifts, with the goal of getting 10,000 voters to oppose the recalls.

“Reinvesting in the community and funding the community helps us feel safe and secure, not recalls,” Inson told The Oaklandside.

Carmen Peng, outreach manager for the political action committee Asian Americans for a Progressive Alameda, said the small but wealthy group of people funding the recalls should not be the reason both leaders are ousted.

“Once you have that vote, you need to respect that vote,” Peng, speaking in Cantonese, told The Oaklandside.

In a Substack post announcing the event, Drake wrote that the grassroots coalition had formed “in response to a major conservative threat to voters’ rights in Oakland and Alameda County.”

“This very small clique of rich tech bros hired the majority of signature gatherers who used lies to encourage Oaklanders to sign these petitions,” she wrote. “They seem to believe their vast wealth should enable them to dictate policy in many communities.”

Turner, founder of Beyond Equity, an Oakland-based educational and advocacy organization for entrepreneurs of color in the cannabis industry, said it’s wrong for the recall campaigns’ organizers to try to make policy decisions for the community members most impacted by the criminal justice system.

“I’ve never seen any of the people who are leading the recalls come to deep East Oakland to talk to residents and small business owners,” Turner said.

With Election Day less than three months away, Turner said opponents of the recalls should remain hopeful and continue coming to East Oakland to get involved.

“If you do live in this area, make sure that you pay attention,” they said. “If you don’t, ask us what we would like to see here in deep East Oakland and all of Oakland, because when East Oakland thrives, all of Oakland thrives.”

https://oaklandside.org/2024/08/19/anti-recall-thao-price-oakland-meeting/