By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor
Oakland, CA – Opponents of Pamela Price, citing missteps by the DA who has only been in office since January and a rising crime rate, have taken a page from the playbook across the Bay to attempt to oust the reformer.
“The ‘tough on crime’ opponents to DA Price are struggling to secure signatures for a costly recall that offers no solutions to long standing structural problems – only a scapegoat,” said this week Ludovic Blain CDT Executive Director and Alameda County resident.
According to filings, not only is the DA Price recall effort missing signatures, but they’re also crumbling into factions.
“Less than a year ago, DA Pamela Price was elected by 54% of Alameda County general election voters because of her progressive approach to making communities safer,” Blain said. “In just eight months, after inheriting an office that was divided and understaffed, she has filled long standing vacancies and upheld each of her campaign promises – ensuring public safety, restoring public trust in the criminal justice 
system, ending mass incarceration.”
Blain added, “She strengthened the Victim-Witness Advocate Division, hiring a team of 12 who can communicate with residents in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Mam. Her administration has increased the number of cases going to collaborative courts, helping people with drug and alcohol conditions enter treatment, and piloting transitional youth courts, an age appropriate response to criminal violations for youth.”
The playbook worked in San Francisco in terms of ousting Boudin, but many have noted that the situation in San Francisco has not only not improved in the year-plus since Boudin’s ouster, but has worsened.
Meanwhile, the movement against Price seems to be splintering.
Blain said, “It’s no surprise they are failing to gather signatures splitting up into factions – they don’t represent the majority of Alameda County residents or voters. Good riddance to them.”
In a phone interview with the Vanguard, Blain explained, “Those folks seem to want to bring the outcomes they brought to San Francisco, to Alameda County. The spurious attacks on DA price so soon after she was seated show how unsavvy these dumb, expensive and dangerous tough-on-crime folks are.”
The initial petition was rejected and they now have roughly ten days to turn things around.
“We’ll see if they can do that,” Blain said. “I think Alameda County voters will reject this. I think it’ll be hard for them to actually file this petition, never mind to get the signatures needed. And meanwhile, all this makes it more challenging for the folks at the city and the county level to actually govern.”
The issue of rising crime is hotly contested. Blain pointed out that they focus heavily on Oakland, which is only about one-quarter of the county’s population.
“Crime is up everywhere, both where they’re reformer DAs and where they’re regressive DAs,” Blain explained. “We see similar data on crime between Alameda County, which has a reformer DA and San Francisco, the major bordering county, which has a regressive DA.”
They asked, “Why would you blame Price for some rising crime in Alameda and she’s only been there eight months and you wouldn’t blame Brooke Jenkins who’s been there for 13 months, is just, it’s like Trump level disinformation.”
Supporters also point out it’s only eight months into her tenure.
Blain pointed out that not only did she win 54 percent of the vote in the general election, “She is delivering what she campaigned on.”
Blain noted, “Even the people who are getting press for the resignation letters, which is a remarkable thing in and of itself, agree that she is, they say they’re resigning because she’s telling them to do things that she campaigned saying she would do and the voters voted for her to do, so to them, like to the recall folks, I say good riddance because if you are not on board with what the executive wants to do, you should leave.”
Ironically, several are leaving to go work for Brooke Jenkins, a city where crime has been a problem.
Will these tactics ultimately work? They worked in San Francisco, but in other communities like Los Angeles and Philadelphia, efforts to oust the DA have failed.
David, thanks for the reporting on this, but I would have liked to have read some quotes from the other side on this topic.
For instance, Blain is quoted as saying “I say good riddance because if you are not on board with what the executive wants to do, you should leave”
I’m not convinced the large amount of resignations in her office really should not be dismissed so easily, even by progressives. Here is one example.
https://www.berkeleyscanner.com/2023/07/22/courts/pamela-price-critic-facing-misdemeanor-butch-ford-blasts-da-security-breach/