Pamela Price doubled-down on progressive bastions and won
Fremont councilmembers were not buying Lily Mei’s explanation for her censure referral
ELECTION 2022
ALAMEDA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
—PRICE WAS RIGHT—In order to win the Alameda County District Attorney runoff this fall, Pamela Price needed to somehow expand support for her campaign to less avidly progressive areas in Southern and Eastern Alameda County. Or, went the theory espoused here and by others.
—Electoral gains in places like Union City, Newark, and Fremont certainly expanded her share of the pie last month, as she topped Terry Wiley by four points, in becoming Alameda County’s first Black district attorney.
—But these victories were not especially dominating. Price needed more, even though she won the four-candidate June primary with 42 percent of the vote, a healthy 15-point advantage over Wiley.
—But Wiley’s 29 percent share of the vote, and the 20 percent won by Jimmie Wilson, a challenger who shared similar law and order backgrounds and political platforms with Wiley, posed a problem for Price and her clear progressive credentials.
—In the November runoff, the electoral map shows Price did not win a single precinct east of the 238 freeway. (Price actually did win two precincts in East County, but both included just a single vote.) It didn’t matter.
—One of the most interesting outcomes of the entire November General Election in the East Bay is that Price took an existing rabid following in the progressive bastions of Oakland and Berkeley and turned them into absolute fanatics about her campaign.
—Nearly every precinct in Oakland, Berkeley, except for the hills, registered support for Price of between 70-80 percent. The Oakland hills supported Wiley, however, only tepidly, and with narrow advantages. Price also posted strong wins in Albany and Emeryville, and also cleaned up in Alameda and San Leandro.
—Basically Price expanded her support in areas that already loved her platform. Places with a large portion of the county’s population, in addition, to areas with high-propensity voters.
—It could be argued that Price’s strong performance in these progressive enclaves stoked the flame that helped elect a number of other progressives in the November election.
—They include Sheng Thao in Oakland’s mayoral race, Celina Reynes in San Leandro City Council race in District 1, George Syrop in the Hayward City Council race, Liz Ortega-Toro in the 20th Assembly District, and Aisha Wahab in the 10th State Senate District.
—Even with large number of votes coming from the progressive west of Alameda County, Wiley may have been able to close the gap with Price. Wiley certainly had the money to get the job done. No other countywide candidate raised more money than Wiley, and the spigot was flowing money up until the last days of the November campaign.
—But what did he do with that major fundraising advantage, not to mention loads of Independent Expenditure Committee support for his campaign and opposing Price? It’s not clear.
— The message that Price and her progressive policies were akin to recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin didn’t seem to catch on. Instead, Wiley ran mostly on experience.
—Personality-wise, voters never got to know him. By contrast, Price’s name has seemingly shown up on every ballot since 2014, meaning people know her or, at least, recognize her name.
—Wiley’s milquetoast persona didn’t energize East County as much as he needed. Although Wiley dominated some deep East County precincts with similar numbers Price posted in Oakland, he averaged 8-10 point advantages elsewhere. Surprisingly, Wiley underperformed in Dublin.
—In the end, it was true that Wiley had much more prosecutorial experience than Price. But this race was not in a courtroom, it was on the campaign trail. In this arena, Price was clearly the more experienced candidate. She been in campaign-mode for nearly a decade, and running for district attorney since 2018.
—Price rode, and perhaps ignited a progressive wave in this election, limited the number of gaffes she had been known to commit in the past, and with the Alameda County Sheriff-elect Yesenia Sanchez, signals a new era of progressive law enforcement in the East Bay.
CITY NEWS
FREMONT
—MEI BACKTRACKS ON REFERRAL—Fremont Mayor Lily Mei now says a referral she offered this week suggesting one or more councilmembers may have violated the Brown Act was really about the council receiving a brush up on closed session rules. But three councilmembers were not buying her explanation.
—“I was wondering what this was referring to in terms of deliberate actions and public violations,” asked Fremont Councilmember Jenny Kassan, and whether Mei was considering a censure for some unknown violation.
—Mei backtracked and made it about training for the new councilmember. “It’s important for us to always be updated in this area,” Mei said. Fremont welcomed newly-elected District 2 Councilmember Desrie Campbell on Tuesday night.
—“I’m trying to understand what is really behind this whole referral,” Councilmember Teresa Cox said. “I really don’t understand it.”
—The referral offered by Mei vaguely references some type of alleged communication by a councilmember outside of closed session. Mei and Councilmember Yang Shao suggested the privileged information dealt with the city’s recent negotiations with a number of city employee groups.
—“There’s been certainly some miscommunication about our city and our financial standings, and other areas, which have shared confusion and I think it could be impactful to our city.” Mei said.
—Cox still wasn’t buying what Mei was selling. “We need to make sure that this referral is not leading toward personal agenda and that it doesn’t crossover to be a platform for the city of Fremont. I just get the feeling this is more than what is stated here.”
—Cox suggested Mei referral is sour grapes for losing the state senate race last month to Aisha Wahab.
—“I feel like it’s more of a finger-pointing at different people that doesn’t need to go there. And I think that you’re taking it to a more personal area that it is something that—just because you lost the race the California Senate doesn’t mean you bring in these type of things to go and blame people.
—Councilmember Teresa Keng, and others, were also critical of a passage in Mei’s referral that suggests previous censures in Fremont.
—None have occurred, but three years ago the council forwarded a referral to look into possible censure of Keng after she gave unauthorized city proclamations to a Communist China group that supports a Chinese takeover of Taiwan. The referral was never acted upon.
HAYWARD
—WHO WANTS TO BE A COUNCILMEMBER?—The new Hayward City Council will be short a person for a few weeks as the search for an appointee to finish the last two years of newly-elected Mayor Mark Salinas’ council term begins.
—The city began accepting applications for the council appointment on Wednesday, with a deadline set for Jan. 3.
—The council will select up to five candidates for interviews that night with a possible appointment being named on Jan. 9.
—Hayward Planning Commissioner Dan Goldstein could a front runner for the nod after finishing third in last month’s at-large race for two seats.
—But conjuring up list of viable candidates is difficult in Hayward, which has long suffered with a lack of a strong bench of future council candidates.