OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — The East Bay saw two primary races for district attorney reflect voters’ preference toward progressive prosecutors promising to reform criminal justice practices.
Amid the confirmed recall of San Francisco’s progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a 60-40 split, just across San Francisco Bay, voters signaled robust favor for reform-minded candidates in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
While national media was quick to question whether Boudin’s removal reflected a swing back from criminal justice reform, local researchers pointed to progressive candidates’ success elsewhere to demonstrate that the state’s voters still want to see reform and accountability for state and local agencies.
In Alameda County’s DA race, as of Friday nationally recognized civil rights attorney Pamela Price — who ran against incumbent Nancy O’Malley in 2018 — got 40% of the vote among four candidates. Terry Wiley, the incumbent’s chief assistant DA, earned 29.5%.
Price, a former criminal defense attorney and defender with a firm in Oakland, represents a turn for more progressive leadership of the county’s criminal justice system, framing her campaign against the DA’s establishment and traditional “tough on crime” policies. Endorsed by Oakland Rising and activists like Angela Davis and Susan Burton, she has campaigned since 2018 to tackle racial disparity in prosecutions and end mass incarceration of people of color, and wants to stop prosecuting children as adults.
Her opponent Wiley has garnered support due to his experience as Chief Deputy District Attorney in O’Malley’s office, and his campaign focused on equity measures like clearing wrongful convictions and old, non-violent drug offenses, while increasing trust between police, prosecutors and judges.
While more ballots must be counted this week, if the results hold Price and Wiley will face off in the November general election, where turnout is likely to be significantly higher.
The primary race for the county’s DA and sheriff is high-stakes for criminal justice transparency and reform in a region nearly double San Francisco’s size. Following years of protests over mistreatment and deaths at one of the nation’s largest jails — Santa Rita, now under a federal judge’s six-year oversight order to reform conditions and provide adequate mental health treatment — Sheriff Greg Ahern has only 34% of the vote.
With his opponent Yesenia Sanchez now at 50% of votes, it is possible Ahern may not make it to a runoff in November if the numbers hold. His and the DA’s office hold significant power, with the latter overseeing hundreds of attorneys and multiple police agencies, while determining criminal charges and whether to incarcerate people convicted of drug or theft offenses, or divert into alternative programs.
Nearby in Contra Costa County, which has about 1.1 million residents, voters reelected the state’s only Black elected DA, Diana Becton, who ran on continuing more progressive prosecutorial methods. Her challenger, prosecutor Mary Knox, ran using traditional pro-punishment messaging that claimed Becton was neither prosecuting enough cases nor convicting enough people to keep the public safe. New unofficial results released Friday afternoon had Becton at 56% of votes, with Knox trailing at 44%.
Becton said in a phone interview Thursday that she thinks results point to voters’ desire “that our justice system needs to be more fair and more equitable for everyone.”
“Four years ago when I was elected, I promised to do things differently,” Becton said.
She added she thinks people support her promises to focus on serious and violent crime, while investing in youth programs and alternative incarceration for minor offenses, diverting people with addiction or mental illness into treatment.
“The bail policies of the past that were status quo, they frankly decimated entire communities,” Becton said. “The voters have shown they believe with me that there’s a better way to do this.”
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