Recalled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has been told to see herself out; cops hail the landslide recall
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Mayor Sheng Thao’s opponents campaigned on her devastating policy choices that bathed The Town in red ink and high crime. Thao fired a popular police chief and somehow missed the deadline for a retail theft grant worth millions. Oaklanders have resoundingly rejected Thao, inviting speculation that Barbara Lee could face off against Loren Taylor in the April special election. KTVU’s Lisa Fernandez reports.
The last time a mayoral recall vote occurred in Oakland was in 1917 against Mayor John Davis, and it was unsuccessful, the city clerk’s office told the San Francisco Chronicle. There were calls to recall Mayor Libby Schaaf and Mayor Jean Quan, but those efforts never made the ballot.
Thao’s critics have held a steady drumbeat of news conferences, calling the mayor incompetent and blaming her for Oakland’s past high crime rate, firing a popular police chief and missing out on millions on a retail theft grant the city missed the deadline for.
After Thao's concession, the Oakland Police Officers Union issued a statement where they claimed "victory" in both recalls and thanked supporters.
"We stood with Oakland residents for the recall of Mayor Sheng Thao for her defunding of police and for her gross fiscal mismanagement that has led Oakland into near bankruptcy," President of the Oakland Police Officers Association Sgty. Huy Nguyen's statement read in part.
Loren Taylor, whom Thao beat in the last election by a slim margin, is one of the people who said he’d be interested in the seat. Others have floated the names of U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee or newly elected City Councilman Zac Unger.
Read the whole thing here.
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