Alameda County District Attorney Will Face a Recall Election in November

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to consolidate the recall election of District Attorney Pamela Price with the presidential election.

“The people of this county have the right to elect a District Attorney. And they did,” Price said during a Wednesday press conference. “We should not have to do it again, but we will.”

Supervisors Keith Carson, Elisa Marquez and Board President Nate Miley voted in favor of the consolidation. Supervisors David Haubert and Lena Tam were absent.

Zoom out: Price is the first DA to face a recall election in county history. Each step of the recall process has been closely watched and hotly debated, but perhaps nothing has drawn interest than the scheduling of the election. The transition from using the county charter to govern recall elections to state laws led to threats of lawsuits and accusations from both sides that the county cherry-picked regulations to suit its preferences, a claim the county counsel rejected at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting.

“We’ve made our best effort to interpret the law, in light of the cards we were dealt, the best we could,” said Donna Zeigler, Alameda’s county counsel. “We’ve been transparent and no one has decided to take us to court so far.”

Zoom in: The supervisors were deciding between two options. They could’ve held a special election — with only the recall on the ballot — in August or September. Or they could’ve chosen Nov. 5, the date of the general election. The county registrar urged the supervisors to pick November, saying a special election would cost the county approximately $15-20 million while a consolidated election would cost approximately $4 million.

Inside view: According to the county administrator, the county is expecting a budget deficit of around $68 million. And the county may have to bail out the Alameda Health Service, which is anticipating a whopping $100 million deficit.

“Normally, the county has a deficit of about $50 million or so. That’s not too tough for us to balance,” Miley said. “But we start getting over $100 million, $150 million — that becomes more challenging.”

Outside view: Nearly 100 people spoke during hours of public comment on Tuesday. Price supporters said the registrar violated the county charter in approving the recall for the ballot.

“I don’t understand how you can move forward with a recall that did not follow the county rules,” said Rivka Polatnick. “You need to uphold the county charter, which was in effect at the time and not move forward with this.”

Others said choosing November would be more democratic because general elections tend to draw a larger voter turnout than special elections.

“We can’t let a small number of voters with the most access to information dictate our election,” said Deanna Lui, political coordinator for the Asian Pacific islander Environmental Network.

Supporters of the recall wanted a special election, arguing that Price’s policies reducing the use of sentence enhancements are too lenient.

“We cannot afford the delay. The consequences of postponing the election are far reaching, affecting thousands of cases similar to my daughter’s case,” said Sophie Ortiz, whose 5-year-old daughter, Eliyanah Crisostomo, was killed when her family’s car was shot at while driving on Interstate 808 in 2023.

Between the lines: Accusations of supervisors letting personal politics sway their vote were flying at the meeting. Recall supporters highlighted Carson’s $2,500 donation in February to Price’s 2028 re-election campaign.

“That person has been duly elected,” he said. “I think that they deserve at least a reasonable period of time in order to find out what their job entails, to understand their job and be able to carry it out.”

Price supporters referred to a photo of Miley posing with recall campaign leader Brenda Grisham at his annual campaign rally last weekend.

“I have friends on both sides of this issue,” Miley said. “Where I’m falling on this, it’s not based on politics and it’s not based on personalities. It’s based on what I think needs to happen.”

What’s next: Over the next five months, both sides of the recall are going to be fundraising and doing their best to draw Alameda voters to their view of the DA’s short track record. So far, the recall fundraising has far outpaced that of Price supporters.

“The effort to overturn the November election has never been a grassroots movement,” Price said. “It is a platinum roots movement. From the beginning, it’s been an effort bankrolled by a handful of super rich real estate investors and tech executives. The platinum roots behind the scenes, propping up the faces out front, falsely claiming that they were grassroots.”

If a recall is approved by voters in November, the DA’s office may see a series of new leaders. According to the county charter, the supervisors will be responsible for selecting an interim district attorney to take Price’s spot until the next regularly scheduled general election in 2026. Then voters would get to elect someone to fill out the rest of Price’s term, which ends in 2028. The outcome could be four different administrations before the decade is out.