Does Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao deserve to keep her job or get the boot after less than two years? That’s the question voters will have to answer, likely in November during the general election.
The campaign trying to remove Oakland’s mayor submitted enough signatures to place the recall on the ballot, the Oakland City Clerk confirmed this afternoon. Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis said his office completed the verification of the petitions on June 14 and “it was found to be sufficient.” He said next steps will be determined by the city of Oakland.
The recall campaign needed to collect 25,000 registered voters’ signatures before July. Officials said they received 40,000 and enough of these were verified to qualify the measure for the ballot. Under state law, the recall will most likely be folded into the November general election.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is also facing a recall election in November. Having the mayor and DA face a recall in the same election is an unprecedented event in Oakland’s 172-year-long history.
The recall against Thao was launched in January by a group of activists who blame her administration for a rise in crime that started during the pandemic and has remained a major problem. They have also blamed Thao for the Oakland A’s leaving the city and for not securing a state grant to help OPD combat retail theft. And they believe it was a mistake for Thao to fire former Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong.
The recall is spearheaded by Brenda Harbin-Forte, a former Alameda County Superior Court judge and police commissioner. Harbin-Forte became more critical of Thao after the mayor removed her from the police commission last June after her term expired. Harbin-Forte has told the press she wasn’t motivated by personal resentments to start the recall. In interviews she has accused Thao of having “blood on her hands” because of ongoing violent crime in the city.
The spokesperson for the recall is Seneca Scott, a local activist who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2022. Scott also leads an advocacy organization called Neighbors Together Oakland that is currently appealing a cease and desist order from the California Attorney General for failing to register as a nonprofit.
Harbin-Forte and Scott did not respond to a request for an interview. Harbin-Forte previously refused to speak with The Oaklandside, saying the recall campaign chooses “to engage with media entities and individuals with shared values.”
On X (formerly Twitter), Scott tweeted a copy of an email from Oakland’s City Clerk notifying the recall campaign it had succeeded in gathering enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot.
The Oakland City Clerk confirmed for The Oaklandside that the county Registrar of Voters has verified the petition signatures and they’re sufficient to place the recall on the ballot.
Thao’s administration was dismissive of the recall when it launched in January, with her chief of staff Leigh Hanson referring to the campaign’s organizers as “losers.” Last month, Thao set up her own committee—”Oaklanders Defending Democracy, Oppose the Recall of Mayor Thao” to raise money to fight the recall.
Thao’s campaign team did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
