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Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price speaks during a press conference Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, in Oakland, Calif. (Jane Tisca/Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND — $1 of every $3 donated last year to a recall campaign targeting Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price went to a Bay Area hedge fund that funded the ouster of San Francisco’s top prosecutor in 2022 It came from a partner, campaign finance records filed. weekly program.
Donations from Farallon Capital Management partner Philip Dreyfuss, totaling $390,000 as of Dec. 31, are more than nearly all other known donors combined, according to new filings. much smaller.
Two groups seeking to oust Price, who took office early last year, have collectively raised nearly $1.2 million in 2023. Most of that money has so far been spent collecting signatures in hopes of gaining enough support to bring the recall to voters later this year. .
Carl Chan, who is helping organize the recall, said the total is on pace with the goal of raising enough money to cover the costs of the signature-gathering phase of the recall effort.
Chan, the Oakland Chinatown leader, said most of those donating “say public safety is their primary concern and that’s why they want to spend their money to make these changes.” he said.
These numbers contrast with the roughly $82,000 raised in 2023 by Protect the Win, a campaign to keep Price in office. Mr. Price’s own reelection campaign raised $53,000 last year, about $17,000 of which he donated to the Protect the Win group.
Mr. Price’s supporters accused the recall organizers of being financially dependent on real estate moguls and wealthy people in the tech industry. “Just because someone is rich should not give them the power to overturn the collective decisions of voters,” the group said in a statement.
Almost two-thirds of the donations received by Safe Alameda for Everyone, the official group organizing the recall effort, came from a group called Recall Supporters of Recall Pamela Price. , the organization has provided $694,000 through December 31st. Mr. Dreyfuss gave even more funding to the organization, according to campaign records. More than half of the funding, totaling about $390,000, came from donations and loans.
Since January 1, recall advocate Pamela Price has donated more than $500,000 to SAFE groups, bringing total donations to SAFE to at least $1.3 million. The group was previously known as “Reviving the Bay Area.”
Mr. Dreyfuss, a graduate of Harvard Business School’s MBA program, joined Farallon Capital in 2011 as a partner in the firm’s arbitrage group, according to Farallon’s website. He previously worked in private equity investments as an associate at Bain Capital Partners and also worked as a management consultant with a focus on healthcare at Boston Consulting Group.
Public records show the 40-year-old man had recent addresses in the Piedmont and the Rockridge area of Oakland. He has not listed his preferred political party, according to recent voter data. Mr. Dreyfuss became interested in Bay Area politics several years ago when he donated $10,000 to a campaign aimed at successfully ousting San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Recall advocate Pamela Price appears to be mostly focused on removing district attorneys from office, pouring money into all but one recall campaign. A notable exception was in late 2023, when the group donated $25,000 to School Over Stadiums. The group, based in Nevada and organized by teachers, wants voters to decide whether $380 million in taxpayer money should be spent on the new Oakland A’s stadium in Las Vegas. thinking.
Bay Area News Group attempts to contact Dreyfuss by phone, email and at his home were unsuccessful. The principal did not return messages to supporters of Pamela Price’s recall.
There are other examples of wealthy business owners engaging in recalls. In one case, a wealthy developer named Bill Gallaher spent at least $1.7 million on a recall effort targeting Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch, according to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. Ravitch had previously accused Gallaher of leaving elderly people in two care homes to fend for themselves during the 2017 Tubbs fire, the paper said.
It was no surprise to observers that so much money could be raised from one person.
“It seems like it’s some kind of strategy. It may come down to one wealthy individual being able to exaggerate these things,” said Boudin, an Oakland-based political consultant who recalls Boudin. said Jim Ross, who worked on Boudin’s campaign. “All you need is one rich person. Get one person with money and you’ll get a recall.”
The fundraising drive comes as recall organizers set their sights on a goal of collecting 110,000 signatures from Alameda County residents to be eligible to put Price recall questions before voters. I was disappointed. County law requires collecting just over 73,000 valid signatures, but campaign professionals generally submit far more signatures to account for duplicates and other signature-gathering errors. This is recommended.
Real estate companies, technology companies, employees in those industries, and former district attorneys and prosecutors make up the bulk of the list of contributors to the recall effort, according to campaign finance filings.
Holland Residential, a Vancouver, Wash.-based multifamily property owner with properties in Pleasanton, San Francisco and San Jose, donated $49,000 to recall backer Pamela Price Group. Another real estate company, Martin Group of Companies, contributed her $40,000 to the group, and HP Investors, LLC added her $25,000 to its coffers.
Former Autodesk CEO Karl Bass, whose X account describes him as a “politically radical moderate,” donated $30,000. Flying Moose, a company he owns and co-founded, also donated $30,000.
Hundreds of people donated directly to the recall effort, including $5,000 each from former Alameda County District Attorneys Nancy O’Malley and Thomas Orloff.
Other big donors to the recall effort include Piedmont retiree Eric Sullivan, who donated $10,000 last year, and James Ellis, former president of Berkeley Real Estate Associates, who donated $9,999. and WCI-GC, a Walnut Creek construction company, also made a donation. Scott Ruegg, co-founder of the San Francisco company Skyline Pacific Properties, donated $9,950, and Courtney Skaar, owner of Quality Scales Unlimited, donated $9,000.
Mr. Price’s own employees were among the biggest contributors to the group’s push to retain Mr. Price.
Raymond Landry, who works with Price’s boyfriend Antwon Croire on a team that identifies candidates for early release from incarceration, donated $7,500 to the Protect the Win group last year. donated. The only person to donate more was Rep. Maria Luisa Flores of Austin, Texas, who gave $10,000.
A statement from the Protect the Win campaign called the recall effort an “undemocratic” effort led by real estate and technology investors to oust Price from office “alongside election deniers.” He said it was an attempt.
“Any effort to overturn an election will be critically evaluated to ensure it reflects the true will of the people, rather than being influenced by the undue economic influence of a select few,” the group said in a statement. It should be done.”
Jacob Rogers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send an encrypted message to Signal at 510-390-2351 or email jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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