Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has rescinded his offer to send attorneys to assist in the prosecution of drug offenses in Oakland. He has accused Pamela Price, the progressive District Attorney of Alameda County, of effectively declining the state’s assistance.
In a letter to Price’s office, Newsom’s Cabinet Secretary Ann Patterson wrote, “Your office has yet to make use of these resources, despite our outreach.” The letter, which was exclusively obtained by POLITICO, informed Price that the attorneys would be redeployed to the California Department of Justice.
Price is currently fighting a recall election that is being driven by concerns regarding crime, and Newsom’s decision to reverse course has dealt her a significant setback. The aggressive intervention also highlights the fact that crime has become a volatile and divisive issue for California Democrats, as it creates an unusually public rift between a publicly elected prosecutor and the state’s most powerful politician.
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As Price and the city’s mayor Sheng Thao, who was also the target of a recent FBI raid, are both up for recall elections in November, public safety concerns have polarized Oakland’s politics. In 2023, the city’s crime rates increased, despite a decline in other large California communities. This prompted Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta to dispatch prosecutors and California Highway Patrol officers earlier this year to provide assistance to the police.
Although police statistics revealed that Oakland’s public safety situation was improving earlier this year, recent media reports have raised questions about the accuracy of that data. Moreover, the public perception that the East Bay city is regressing has been exacerbated by incidents such as carjackings and a shooting at a popular lake last month, despite the fact that crime rates are still significantly lower than their historical highs.
A sequence of events that mirrors the ouster of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022 has Price vying for her political survival less than halfway through her term.
Price, like Boudin, upset the political establishment by gaining office on a pledge to reduce sentencing and prosecute more police officers. Price, like Boudin, is currently facing a recall campaign that is being financed by wealthy interest groups, such as real estate firms. She has denounced the recall as an anti-democratic initiative by “a small group of affluent individuals” who are attempting to annul her election.
Newsom has endeavored to achieve a balance in public safety by addressing frustration regarding drug use and retail crimes without resorting to what he refers to as excessively punitive responses. Last month, he encountered a humiliating setback when he was unable to thwart a statewide ballot initiative that would have increased criminal penalties by withdrawing his competing rival proposal at the eleventh hour.
