SF Chronicle Supports Recall of DA Price and Mayor Thao

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

There has been a lot of drama over newspaper endorsements lately. My own take is that they probably don’t matter much. After all, anyone who cares what the Washington Post editorial board thinks has already made up their mind in this election.

But I do think editorial boards can have some impact when their endorsements cut against the political grain. Case in point, the SF Chronicle has recently endorsed the recall of both progressive DA Pamela Price and embattled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. This is not what you’d necessarily expect from the city’s hometown liberal paper. First up, their take on DA Price.

Price’s short tenure has left us with deep concerns about her competency and fitness for office. Her lack of experience as a prosecutor — which we cited in our 2022 endorsement of one of her opponents — has proved costly.

The Chronicle reported this month that Price’s office missed deadlines to file charges in more than 1,000 misdemeanor cases that had been sitting on her desk for a year, a stunning miscarriage of justice that left victims hanging and eliminated rehabilitation and accountability opportunities for offenders. Following the Chronicle report, Price said she was assigning extra prosecutors to deal with the caseload but didn’t know how long it would take to clear or even how many cases were backed up…

Furthermore, Price’s office has been plagued by allegations of nepotism and unqualified hiring.

Price hired her boyfriend, who was previously investigated by the FBI on suspicion of extortion, as a “senior program specialist” with a six-figure salary — though his exact duties remain unclear. Price also hired a former Oakland Police Department deputy chief with a publicly documented history of misconduct as her office’s chief inspector. Another of her top deputies, who an independent investigation found to have manipulated employees and fostered a fear of retaliation at his former workplace, resigned in June.

And here’s a bit of their take on the recall of Mayor Thao.

There’s no question that Thao has displayed a disturbing lack of basic management and organizational skills.

Most glaringly, Oakland last year lost out on millions of dollars in state funds aimed at combating retail theft — a persistent problem for many of the city’s struggling small businesses and a downtown hollowed out by the pandemic — after the Thao administration failed to meet the grant application deadline. More recently, Thao’s campaign failed to submit a statement responding to recall organizers’ complaints for Oakland’s official voter information guide. “This one fell through the cracks,” a Thao campaign spokesperson told the Chronicle. 

If she can’t follow through on simple tasks, can she be trusted to navigate the city’s projected $240 million two-year budget deficit?

As you may recall, Price had the FBI show up at her home and leave with a bunch of boxes of evidence, though no one will say what that investigation was about. Despite this, the Democratic Party is officially opposing the recalls of both Price and Thao. Yesterday, a group of businesses held a rally to support those recall efforts and wound up being confronted by supporters of Mayor Thao.

Resign or recall was the message as the group of Oakland business owners shut down their businesses to gather for the recall rally at city hall. The crowd represented a mix of business owners, individuals running for office, and recall supporters looking to oust both Thao and Price.

“We need to bring the attention to how severe and drastic the situation is,” said Edward Escobar of Coalition for Community Engagement/Citizens United. “Businesses are not succeeding. They are barely surviving.”

Then, a handful of Thao’s supporters and members of her reject the recall campaign showed up. Within minutes, confrontation overshadowed political conversation.

Here’s a local report on the showdown that resulted in police being called.

It’s not clear how these recall efforts are going to go, though there is some polling that shows most people in Oakland are not happy with the city’s direction. We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out next week.