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A group of Alameda County residents and community leaders held a rally Friday in Oakland to support District Attorney Pamela Price and urge the county’s Board of Supervisors not to schedule a special election for her recall.
The gathering comes on the heels of similar events held by recall proponents who want supervisors to set a special election date prior to the November general election.
Opponents — including Asian Americans for Progressive Alameda, the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network — say special elections are too expensive and tend to be characterized by low voter turnout, which is a perceived advantage for recall organizers.
Instead, they argue, the recall should be placed on the November general election ballot to save money and to ensure that as many voters as possible have a chance to weigh in on Price’s future.
“The Board of Supervisors would be out of hand wasting county money that’s needed for other services in order to hold this special election,” said Wilson Riles, a member of the Oakland Police Commission who spoke at Friday’s rally in front of the Alameda County Administration Building in Oakland.
The county’s top election officer, Tim Dupuis, has reported that a special election would cost the county between $15 million and $20 million.
At the board’s next meeting on Tuesday (April 30), Dupuis will present supervisors with his official certification that recall supporters gathered enough valid signatures to place the issue on a ballot.
After that, the board will have 14 days to set an election date, but if they fail to do so, Dupuis says he would have five days to step in and set a date.
In addition to their objections to a special election, recall opponents say claims about crime made by Price’s critics are false and that they don’t understand the role the county’s top prosecutor plays in the criminal justice system.
Riles said Price isn’t responsible for the way crime numbers go up and down periodically, a phenomenon he said is more heavily influenced by how effective law enforcement agencies are at completing investigations and making arrests.
“Crime is not a problem that can be put on Pamela Price,” he said.
Also, Price supporters say the effort to remove her is part of a broader trend of progressive elected officials being targeted by wealthy conservative groups that can spend large amounts of money to dominate local media landscapes.
“I’ve been appalled by the media, the way the media has portrayed her,” said Rivka Polatnick, a member of the Protect the Win campaign formed to defeat the recall.
Polatnick said Price is a woman of integrity and ethics and a devoted champion to victims of injustice.
“We don’t hear about all the accomplishments she’s made for public safety, not to mention that she’s a D.A. who actually is finally taking on the racism in the criminal justice system,” Polatnick said.
Pro-Price groups also say recall organizers broke the rules by using alleged “dirty tricks” during the signature gathering phase and that Dupuis actually missed the deadline to complete his review of the signatures in order to place the question on a ballot.
“The violence in Oakland started before Price became D.A.,” said Elaine Peng, president of Asian Americans for Progressive Alameda. “It’s not just Oakland, it’s a nationwide trend due to the pandemic, school closures and more guns.”
Friday’s rally came days after supporters of the recall effort held its second rally and press conference to remind supervisors and Dupuis of what they believe their legal responsibilities are.
Save Alameda For Everyone members alleged that the supervisors already violated county election rules when they declined to set an election date at their April 16 meeting following Dupuis’ determination that recall supporters had collected enough valid signatures to put the issue before voters.
“So the board actually failed in their responsibility to set an election date, a special election date, and it should have been within 35 to 40 days,” SAFE campaign manager Chris Moore said on April 23.
Now SAFE says that if the board fails to set a special election date of sometime between late July and early September at its April 30 meeting, they will be in violation of state rules.
If the board again fails to set an election date at that meeting, SAFE supporters say state law gives Dupuis five days to schedule a special election.
Complicating matters is the fact that in the March 5 election, Alameda County voters approved Measure B, a countywide charter amendment that changes recall rules to align with state law.
But it’s unclear which rules apply here — the old county rules or state rules — since the petition gathering for the recall started before voters passed Measure B.
“All of this is unprecedented,” Board President Nate Miley said earlier this month. “We’ve never had to go through this before, and quite frankly, the Board of Supervisors, we will be having county counsel brief us in closed session on their interpretation of the legality and what we should do.”
“There’s so many different complications around this,” Miley said. “I think there’s going to be litigation. Whatever the board does, we’ll be sued — either the proponents will sue or the opponents will sue.”
SAFE supporters are eager to get the recall on a special election ballot and not have it placed on the already scheduled November general election ballot.
They accuse Price, who was elected on a platform of criminal justice reform, of being soft on crime and say that keeping her in office longer than necessary will have a negative impact on crime rates.
“There is not a timeline on life and waiting until November is not an option,” SAFE organizer Brenda Grisham said April 23. “We need her to go right now.”
Attending the rally in front of the county administration building Tuesday were a handful of counter-protesting Price supporters who said it’s silly to spend millions of dollars on a special election given existing budget problems and that the recall is a “right-wing power grab.”
Price supporter Jennifer Zilliac said special elections tend to be characterized by low voter turnout, which would likely favor an anti-Price vote.
“You end up getting fewer people to the polls and that favors their case,” Zilliac said.
Whatever the Board of Supervisors decides to do next, the likelihood of additional legal and political complications is high.
“Stay tuned, this is an ongoing drama that is being played out and we’ll see where it takes us,” Miley said.
Dupuis and Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.