Alameda County became the latest in California and across the country to toss out a progressive prosecutor amid a nationwide backlash against criminal justice reform measures centered on anti-police protests and riots, but which have been blamed for sharply spiking crime rates in Oakland and elsewhere in the past few years.
While votes continue to be counted, Alameda County reports that voters appear to have overwhelmingly voted to approve the recall of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.
According to unofficial vote tallies, more than 65% of voters in the county approved of the effort to recall the controversial Price.
After election results become official, Price will become the first district attorney in Alameda County to ever be recalled from office.
The Alameda County Board will then be tasked with selecting an interim replacement until a new election can be held in 2026 to select a permanent replacement for Price.
The effort to recall Price was launched simultaneously with a campaign to also recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
Thao also appeared to have been recalled, with voters in Oakland handing her the same result as Price.
Both were elected just two years ago, amid a wave of anti-police and "anti-racism" sentiment, driven by the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the protests and riots of 2020 following the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis.
Both were noted progressive activists who urged reforms intended to address what they called the systemic oppression of black people in Oakland and Alameda County.
Price particularly rode the wave of the rise of so-called progressive prosecutors in various cities and counties in large urban areas throughout the U.S. in recent years. These included Chesa Boudin in San Francisco and George Gascon in Los Angeles, as well as Kim Foxx in Chicago and Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, among others.
This year, in Chicago, Foxx chose not to seek reelection and voters handed the office to a former judge who promised to undo many of her policies.
In California, Boudin was recalled in San Francisco in 2022. This election, voters selected interim District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to permanently hold the job. Jenkins had publicly and notably criticized Boudin for policies that promoted the rights of criminals over the interests and needs of crime victims.
According to unofficial tallies, voters appeared to give Jenkins an easy win over her opponent, Ryan Khojasteh, a former assistant to Price in Alameda County.
In recent years, Oakland and the county have been subjected to a spike in crime, from shoplifting to violent crime, as well as drug overdose deaths and other associated societal breakdowns.
Supporters of the recall pinned much of that rise in crime and disorder on the policies of Price, Thao and other arch-progressives in Oakland and elsewhere in the Bay Area.
They notably criticized Price for failing to prosecute criminals, often cutting deals to let accused murderers and others accused of violent or heinous crimes avoid significant jail time.
The rising crime wave prompted calls for action from even left-wing groups, including the Oakland NAACP.
“People are moving out of Oakland in droves,” the local NAACP chapter said in a public letter published in the summer of 2023. “They are afraid to venture out of their homes to go to work, shop or dine in Oakland, and this is destroying economic activity. Businesses, small and large, struggle and close, tax revenues vanish, and we are creating the notorious doom loop where life in our city continues to spiral downward.”
Chris Moore, a candidate for Alameda County Board of Supervisors who led the recall effort, cheered the apparent victories in multiple posts on social media platform X.com.
"Woo hoo - We did it! We recalled an evil person who ignored and mistreated victims of violent crime so that she could cuddle violent criminals. Good riddance @AlamedaCountyDA (the social media handle for the Alameda County District Attorney's office.)"
In a later post discussing the defeat of Price, Thao, Boudin, Gascon and others, he later added: "Good riddence (sic) to all of these politicians that are collectively responsible for the deaths of thousands of Californians all in the name of their political careers."
And in regards to the defeat of Price in Alameda County and Khojasteh in San Francisco County, Moore added: "Ryan (Khojasteh) and disgraced former DA Pamela Price can go back to defending violent criminals on their own time and no longer allowed to treat victims with disrespect."
Price has not yet issued a statement on her apparent recall. Her campaign posted a message on X.com on Nov. 6: "DA Pamela Price urges patience as Alameda County awaits the final count on the recall vote. With hundreds of thousands of ballots still to be counted, she remains optimistic. Let’s allow the process to unfold and trust in the power of every vote."