By Mansour Taleb-Ahmed
OAKLAND, CA – The Collective PAC reportedly decided to endorse Pamela Price for the 2022 Alameda County District Attorney race.
Founded in August of 2016, The Collective PAC has reportedly endorsed and supported hundreds of Black candidates over the past five years. According to reports, the committee helped 110 candidates win general elections at the local, state, and federal levels across the U.S. According to PAC, their duty has always been to work to fix the “underrepresentation of the Black community in elected seats of power throughout America.”
Following recent news regarding civil right attorney Pamela Price’s race for 2022, PAC’s National Political Director Kevin Olasanoye recently explained:
“Civil Rights Attorney Pamela Price has the roots and proven record of putting the everyday working people of Alameda County first, so we are thrilled to support her in her candidacy for Alameda County District Attorney (…) We look forward to helping ensure she gets elected on Nov. 8th and championing her bold, progressive policies needed to advance the Black community and America forward.”
PAC website emphasized that in order to reach “political equity” – a place where Black elected officials represent the community’s population statistically – “Black people should hold at least 13 percent of all elected offices in the U.S.”
Price responded to the organization’s endorsement by stating, “Having the support and backing of The Collective PAC truly means a lot, “Their organization works tirelessly to elect candidates who represent the interests of the diverse Black community across the country and I’m grateful to have them in my corner as we make history in Alameda County in electing our first Black District Attorney.”
According to statistics in the June primary, Price gathered 43 percent of the vote in a crowded four-person race, which reportedly “outpacing her closest opponent by more than 16 points.”
When looking back at the county’s history, Pamela Price would become the County’s first Black DA and only second woman to hold the seat.
Highlighted by her campaign, Price said she has been on the forefront of “changing the landscape of the justice system for 40 years”.
Her roots in Alameda County, unlike her opponent, she said “run 30 years deep in supporting everyday working people in need of finding justice.” Price’s campaign also mentioned how she is “the only candidate who has held corporations, school systems and law enforcement accountable for their misconduct, in the courtroom.”
A 2021 report by Urban Peace Movement and the ACLU of Northern California found that the current leadership in the DA’s office policies and practices led to “overcriminalization, needlessly costing the county money, and promoting mass incarceration with devastating impacts on Black and Brown communities.”
The data also point out that “Black people were almost nine times as likely as whites to be incarcerated in jail, and over four times the county average.”
In a statement Pamela Price proclaimed, “When elected to be the District Attorney of Alameda County, I plan to take aggressive steps to restore public trust in our criminal justice system, ensure public safety, end mass incarceration and root out racial, socioeconomic and gender disparities within Alameda County’s criminal justice system…trust can only happen if we end the status quo and bring transparency, equity and accountability back to the DA’s office.”
