Community Ready Corps Video Exposes Extremists & Billionaires Behind Oakland Recalls

Two powerful Black and POC women in Oakland want to disrupt the status quo and, as a result, have made powerful enemies who want to use recalls to overturn the elections in Oakland at the taxpayers’ expense. They simply want a do-over.

So, what’s a recall? It’s a democratic process where voters can petition to remove elected officials before their term in office ends. In Oakland, this process is being hijacked by wealthy, powerful leaders who simply don’t like the outcome of the elections and want to redo them or make it impossible for those who were fairly elected to do their jobs. Community Ready Corps, led by Tur-Ha Ak, has created a video to help us understand what’s happening.

After Progressive candidates won the Alameda County District Attorney and Mayor of Oakland elections in 2022 before Pamela Price and Sheng Thao were even sworn into office, failed candidates and Right-wing operatives began spreading unfounded claims about the election. They demanded recounts and then launched recall campaigns to challenge the election results that didn’t go in their favor.

The ongoing recall efforts aren’t about public safety. Their aim is to spread misinformation and invoke fear. When you look at recall efforts nationally, you see that this strategy is a national attempt to maintain the status quo, and these efforts are backed by corporate interests, the wealthy, and police unions to resist the changes brought by those who were elected to do things differently.

The history of California tells us that hijacking recalls are not the only thing; they also include ballot initiatives. These recalls are about hoarding power. They’re about a power grab, an effort to overturn the results of these free and fair elections. In November, vote for a fair democracy, not a hijacked one from sour losers in the previous election.