• Alameda County, CA District Attorney: The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday evening to place a recall election targeting District Attorney Pamela Price on the Nov. 5 general election ballot rather than hold a separate contest on an earlier date.
Price, who was elected in 2022 as a criminal justice reformer, will need to convince a majority of voters in this dark-blue East Bay county to vote "no" this fall. If the "yes" side wins, though, it would be up to the five-member Board of Supervisors to choose a new district attorney.
The group behind the recall, Save Alameda for Everyone, is insisting that Price has done a poor job combatting violent crime in her jurisdiction, which includes the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, during her brief time in office. Her detractors have plenty of money to advance their argument, as The Oaklandside writes that the recall campaign has hauled in over $3 million from last summer through the end of March.
Price's team has pushed back by touting her successes in office, arguing that Republican donors are trying to "undermine the results of a free and fair election" and "jeopardize the historic progress achieved in recent years." The Oaklandside, however, says that the campaign to counter the recall, Protect the Win for Public Safety, took in a total of just $118,000 last year and through the first quarter of 2024.
Price's backers may have more success fundraising, though, now that they know the recall will coincide with the presidential race. While a summer recall vote could have disproportionately attracted voters angry with Price, she may instead benefit in a higher turnout contest—a prospect that might in turn buoy her supporters.
However, while the Alameda County Democratic Party last year voted to oppose the recall, one prominent local Democrat seems quite happy with the idea of no longer having Price in office.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, whose 14th District includes just under half of the county, has been engaged in a social media battle with Price, whom he's labeled as "soft on crime." Price has in turn argued that Swalwell, who worked for her predecessor, was highlighting crimes that were "a long-standing problem that predates the current DA."
Price's battle to keep her post comes two years after voters in neighboring San Francisco decisively recalled Chesa Boudin, another progressive whose critics portrayed him as unable to contain crime. Hedge fund manager Philip Dreyfuss, who was one of the top donors to the successful effort to oust Boudin, is playing a similar role in this year's campaign to remove Price from office.