Recall Effort Against Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Gains Traction

The recall effort against Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao continued to grow this week despite continuing insistence from the Mayor’s office that the recall effort won’t work.

The recall effort officially began on January 7th when recall organizers submitted 250 signatures to serve as an intent to recall notice. Led by former Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, organizers have said that Thao needs to be recalled due to her efforts while Mayor leading to a rise in crime as well as eroding public safety. Since being elected as Mayor in the closest Mayoral election in city history in 2022, violent crimes have skyrocketed. In 2023,  burglaries shot up by 23%, with vehicle thefts jumping up by 45% and robberies up 38%. The murder rate also remained high, staying above 100 in a single year for yet another year in a row.

With many believing that Thao has not been addressing crime and public safety concerns, residents began calling for her recall.

“Lives have been lost, property destroyed, businesses have shut down, and fear and collective trauma are daily occurrences for Oaklander,” stated the recall letter on intent. “We, the concerned citizens, therefore demand your recall for the sake of our city’s future.”

Harbin-Forte, the lead organizer, added, “We are imploding in Oakland under her leadership. One of the main reasons for the recall is crime is out of control — along with the firing of the police chief LeRonne Armstrong. It is time to move on. More people are asking when they can sign up.”

The notice of intent specifically noted  how the Oakland Police Department (OPD) has been hammered by Thao’s actions, that Thao has failed to declare a state of emergency in the city despite promising to do so and that Armstrong’s firing helped create a public safety crisis that has led to “the city’s reputation as one of the most dangerous in America”, with no replacement for Armstrong being picked yet.

The sudden recall effort against Thao, as well as one against Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price, put Oakland officials on edge. Thao gave a statement against the recall effort, saying she wants Oaklanders to come together and fight for the city.

“I have the best job in the world. That’s because every day I have a chance to fight for a safer, more affordable, and more prosperous Oakland,” said Thao earlier this month. “I ask all Oaklanders to help me achieve that vision with hope and collaboration and push aside fear and division.”

More recently, her Chief of Staff, Leigh Hanson, gave a more trite statement, saying that “This recall effort is led by losers. Men who ran against her for mayor and lost. I know for a fact that if Mayor Thao had lost the election, she would have conceded gracefully and found a legitimate job that contributed to moving our community forward. I believe the Oakland community is smarter than this and will resist the urge to be distracted by a desperate attempt for relevance.”

Thao looking at a recall election

However, as the month comes to a close, a group of recall supporters that neither side saw coming is proving to be a formidable signature and voting force: baseball fans. As the Oakland Athletics announced relocation to Las Vegas last year and are expected to vacate the city in the coming few years, many A’s fans have blamed Thao for not doing anything to keep the team in the city. While many fans are upset at the crime rates in the city, the loss of their team under Thao’s watch led to an unforeseen bloc of support coming out of the woodwork.

“Thao always says that people underestimated her in politics,” added Eduardo Romero, and Oakland native and baseball fan who is currently looking into petitioning fans outside of baseball games when the season returns in April. “Well, she just very much underestimated how much we are mad at her.”

“Yeah, crime is bad, but a lot of people will say it will get better or something. You know what can’t get better? Losing the last remaining pro team in the city. Thao did that, whether she wants to admit that or not. So you have a lot of fans furious at her, you have all these business owners furious at her because it means a lot of lost business, and you have a lot of regular citizens mad at her because she just lost one of the most recognizable things of the city.”

“A bunch of us are looking into getting signature sheets for April. And you know, a lot of us aren’t political. But Thao made this political. The crime is bad, and so is the loss of the A’s. You can bet a lot of A’s fans are going to be upset enough to sign to get her out.”

As organizers have roughly 5 months to get approximately 25,000 signatures, or 10% of the number of register voters in Oakland, to get the recall on the November ballot, Diaz said that baseball games could play a huge part.

“A’s had low, low attendance nowadays, but there are still thousands coming out per game. We can be out there the first few months of the season, and boom, thousands of signatures at least, especially with high attendance games like opening day. We made a joke like we were the Avengers. Paraphrasing Tony Stark, “We may not be able to save the Athletics, but you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.” That’s the recall to us. The fact that crime is terrible is only adding to that urgency to sign.”

More on the recall effort is to come out soon.