Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Chinatown Leaders Ramp Up Anti-Recall Campaign

Election Day is less than a month away, and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s anti-recall campaign is heating up.

At a Tuesday press conference in the city’s Chinatown, dozens rallied in support of Thao, who later took the stage to highlight her record and cast doubt on what she framed as a fringe, opportunistic and antidemocratic effort to unseat her halfway through her four-year term.

“Her policy is beginning to show signs, and just … give her time,” said Stewart Chen, a small-business owner and president of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council. “Two years is not a lot to ask for.”

Chen said he’s noticed a drop in crime, which is borne out by police data for the area as well as citywide. He called Thao’s opponents “sour grapes.”

The recall campaign known as Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao, or OUST, is led by former mayoral candidate Seneca Scott and Brenda Harbin-Forte, a former Superior Court judge and former member of the city’s Police Commission. The pair announced their push to get rid of Thao just one year after she took office.

As she attempted to speak above half a dozen hecklers who later formed part of a small group of recall proponents who held their own press conference at the site, Thao cast aspersions on the motivations of those driving the recall effort, including the man who’s contributing most of the funds: wealthy hedge fund exec Philip Dreyfuss.

Dreyfuss, a resident of Piedmont, has also donated heavily to district attorney recall campaigns in San Francisco and Alameda counties.

“The person who funds this doesn’t care that Oakland will go into chaos because that chaos really means … money in their pockets,” Thao said. She accused recall organizers of being part of an effort to create a “doom loop for everyone to see so they can come in and get the properties on the pennies.”

Thao’s anti-recall committee, Oaklanders Defending Democracy, has collected about $29,000 this year, most of it since July, according to recent filings. That’s a shadow of the more than $600,000 that recall supporters had put forward as of last month.

The mayor’s critics, meanwhile, have pointed to the city’s massive budget deficit, the loss of the Oakland A’s, and the FBI’s recent raid of Thao’s home, though no criminal charges have been filed against her in that matter.

Patrice Waugh of the Oakland branch of the NAACP, which has endorsed the recall effort, said her group is intent on change. While she acknowledged that Thao inherited many challenges, she said she believes things are getting worse, citing homelessness, Thao’s firing of former Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong and the long process for finding a permanent replacement, and crime’s impact on small businesses.

Waugh added that she doesn’t believe crime rates are truly down.

“I beg to differ,” she said. “I think folks are afraid to call in. Folks are not even calling in [to 911] because their calls are not being taken. Folks are not going into the police station to file reports anymore. Because nothing is happening under this leadership.”

At the press conference, Thao touted what she considers her achievements since taking the helm of a troubled city: fewer homicides, closing encampments while offering housing to those who want it, grants and investments in the Department of Violence Prevention, hydrogen hubs, affordable housing, cleanliness and new jobs.

Thao warned of instability and a rotating cast of mayors if the recall campaign succeeds in removing her.

“Five mayors in three years,” Thao said. “If you thought that crime was high in 2023 and 2022 and 2021, imagine a city with no leadership.”