East Bay Politicians Speak Out Against Recall of Alameda County DA Pamela Price

Less than a month from the November election, a group of high-profile East Bay politicians are speaking out against the recall effort targeting Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price as she pushes back against criticism over public safety.

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and state Sen. Nancy Skinner, both of whom represent the northern end of Alameda County, announced this week that they oppose the potential recalls of Price Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. The volley of support for the embattled officials comes a week after Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has long been a critic of Price, endorsed the recall campaign against her.

In a statement on the social media platform X, Skinner said that, like Lee, she opposes recalls on principle.

“Except in rare circumstances of serious misconduct, recalls are undemocratic and a waste of public funds,” Skinner wrote. “That’s especially true in the case of the Nov. 5 recalls, when the incumbents have only been in office for 2 years and will be up for reelection just 2 years from now. Wealthy interests should not be able to circumvent the regular democratic process and pay to put a recall on the ballot.”

The announcements follow prior anti-recall endorsements from Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.

“Whether we are Democrats or not, it should make us sick to our stomach that a few people, in this case, real estate developers and hedge fund managers, can use their money to undo our democratic vote,” Yoana Tchoukleva, co-chair of Alameda County Democrats’ legislation committee, said at a press conference on Thursday.

Last week, Swalwell, who represents southeastern Alameda County, was joined by all 14 law enforcement unions in Alameda County in announcing support for the recall of Price.

“We cannot use reform rhetoric to allow criminals to continue victimizing our citizens with little to no consequences,” law enforcement union leaders said in a joint statement on Saturday. “Those of us who literally patrol the streets of Alameda County, we see first-hand how District Attorney Pamela Price is failing to keep us safe and hold criminals accountable.”

At Thursday’s press conference, Price said the county’s police unions are upset because she has brought criminal charges against law enforcement officers who killed civilians in the line of duty, something Price’s predecessor Nancy O’Malley did once during her nearly 14 years in office.

“The days when police and rogue police officers and police unions controlled this office are over,” Price said. “When you have a solution to the problem, then you become the problem to people who have prospered, participated and profited off of our pain.”

On Monday, involuntary manslaughter charges were dismissed against two of the three Alameda police officers that Price’s office had sought to prosecute over the 2021 death of Mario Gonzalez. A judge ruled that prosecutors failed to file the necessary paperwork in time to bring charges within the statute of limitations.

Price had announced those charges in April, reversing a decision by O’Malley just days after the recall effort qualified for the ballot.

Over the last two weeks, law enforcement unions in the county donated $47,500 to the campaign to recall Price, according to campaign finance filings with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. The union representing prosecutors in Price’s office contributed $40,000, and O’Malley gave $5,000.

On Tuesday, the recall campaign released a new video advertisement attacking Price, alleging that she refuses to prosecute crimes. According to last year’s annual report from the Alameda County district attorney’s office, prosecutors filed criminal charges that year at a rate similar to that of the final four years of O’Malley’s administration. The report does not provide details on what types of charges were filed; Price has said the format of the office’s electronic case management system does not allow it to extract data with that level of detail.

Price has been criticized for charging and settling cases for less than the most severe punishment possible. She was elected on a platform that promised to use alternatives to incarceration and rehabilitation programs for people convicted of crimes to reduce mass incarceration and racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

The ad features a clip from a press conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom from July when he announced his decision to rescind an offer to send state attorneys to assist with drug prosecutions by Price’s office. Price said the offer would not have benefited her office as much as the governor contended. Newsom’s campaign manager did not respond to a request for comment about whether he supports the Price recall.

Off the campaign trail, Price this week announced what she called “the largest grant investment in the history of the Alameda County district attorney’s office.” The $6 million state grant will go toward expanding the Alameda County Community Assessment Referral Engagement Services (CARES) Navigation Center, which provides programs where law enforcement officers can send people experiencing drug use or mental health-related challenges without having to make an arrest.