Just one year after being sworn in as mayor of Oakland, CA, Sheng Thao is reportedly facing a recall.
NBC Bay Area reports a group is intending to submit a notice of intention to launch the effort.
Thao was just sworn in on January 5, 2023. News of the recall comes as voters are already being asked to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price who was sworn in the same week as Thao.
Price who campaigned on progressive values is seen by her opponents as too light on crime.
Thao faced criticism after ousting Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong a month after she took office. The firing happened after an independent report cited a lack of leadership in handling two police misconduct cases. Then late last year she rejected a list of three candidates submitted by the city’s police commission that included Armstrong himself.
The mayor has also faced criticism after the city failed to meet a deadline to apply for funds to fight retail crime.
Thao rose through the ranks of city politics first as a political aid and then as a city council person. She is the first Hmong American to become mayor of Oakland and the first Hmong American to run a larger city.
She is a single mother, a domestic violence survivor and someone who was also formally unhoused.
It’s unclear how much support a recall would have. A petition on change.org launched September 17 that called for a recall has collected less than 500 signatures as of this morning.
The notice of intent to begin a recall only needs 250 signatures. Organizers are expected to turn that notice in sometime on Friday.
So far there’s no comment from the mayor’s office about the effort.
In 2021, Californians were asked to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. The state spend 200 million on the failed attempt. San Francisco voters, however, did successfully recall district attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022 and three school board members.
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Thao has had a number of administrative and political fiascos that damage her credibility as a competent mayor. The ineptitude reminds me of Jean Quan…only pathetically worse than Quan.