Justice for Henry Texada
By Carla Thomas
In an attempt to thwart the recall call campaign against her, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced at a press conference on Tuesday, April 30, that her team is launching a state investigation on the political action committee funding the recall.
Speaking at Everett and Jones Barbeque Restaurant at Oakland’s Jack London Square, Price accused the recall campaign as undemocratic and says she will fight against injustice.
Price announced that the California Fair Political Practices Commission (CFPPC) was looking into the complaint filed by her supporters against two groups supporting the recall.
Price said the group Reviving the Bay Area appears to be the financial and organizational arm of Save Alameda For Everyone (SAFE), the group leading the recall effort against her. The complaint by recall-opposing group Protect the Win for Public Safety alleges Reviving the Bay Area has breached the law by not filing a third quarter report listing its contributors and hiding its funding sources from the public at least through September of 2023.
Price also claimed that the SAFE recall group is functioning illegally both financially and operationally.
“Between September 2023 and November 2023, they donated approximately $578,000 to SAFE without complying with the laws that govern all political committees in California,” said Price. “We applaud the FPPC’s action to investigate this entity as well as the finances that have also come under question of the SAFE committee, where we’ve learned that they were paying some of the main spokespersons and funding an illegal force that they called a security force.
“So there have been a lot of financial irregularities, coupled with the irregular practices of the signature-gathering company PCI Communications that literally paid for hundreds of people to come into our community and gather signatures using bait-and-switch tactics and misleading people and engaging in fraudulent signature-gathering.”
Price also accused the Alameda County Registrar of Voters of not operating properly.
At a press conference at the City Hall Plaza late Tuesday afternoon, SAFE and recall supporters demanded that supervisors set a special election date before the November general election. Supporters of Price and opposers of Price clashed and spoke passionately against each other.
Supporters of the recall feel that Price’s, criminal justice reforms support perpetrators of crime, rather than the victims. They also blame Price for higher crime rates in the county. Price supporters feel that her reforms are necessary to transform an unjust system. “Price’s role is to uphold the law and this recall campaign is an attack on her,” said Oakland attorney Walter Riley.
Recall opponents reject those assertions and say Price’s critics don’t understand the role the county’s top prosecutor plays in the criminal justice system.
Price also said she would be going before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to challenge the signature count for her recall campaign.
Later in the evening, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted in support of the recall, citing that enough signatures had been collected for the recall effort to continue.
On May 14, the Board of Supervisors will determine a date for a special election recall or place on the November ballot. According to Price, a special election recall will cost the county 15-20 million dollars and her supporters hosted another rally last week, urging the Board of Supervisors to not approve a special election recall.
#PamelaPrice #Recall #AlamedaCountyDA
