OAKLAND — A mix of real estate moguls, technology executives, retirees and former Alameda County prosecutors are among the early backers of the effort to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, newly released campaign filings show.
The financial backers of the recall were identified for the first time Wednesday as having donated to Save Alameda For Everyone, or SAFE, a group that formed over the summer to oust Price. The first-term district attorney was elected last year on a platform of reforming the East Bay’s criminal justice system and combatting the legacy of mass incarceration.
The filings show SAFE raised more than $212,662 from July 1 to Sept. 30. SAFE is receiving big backing from a group called Reviving the Bay Area, which spent $48,000 on polling and in October donated $230,000. One of the group’s officers, Philip Dreyfuss, also was listed as a founding member of SAFE, campaign records show.
The largest individual donor to SAFE so far is Ryan R. Sutton-Gee, a Lafayette man who listed himself as an “angel investor” and donated $49,000 to the recall effort. Other well-heeled donors included Peterson Properties of Oakland, which donated $10,000, as well as Ilya Sukhar, a San Franciscan and partner at Matrix Parters who gave $9,000. Auyeung Market Street, LLC, of Oakland, donated $7,500.
The recall effort’s fundraising haul significantly outpaced the amount raised by a committee formed in September to support Price called Protect the Win for Public Safety — Oppose the Recall of DA Price.
It raised $15,284 in September and spent about two-thirds of that amount on legal and media expenses, the filings show. Its largest backers included Real Justice PAC, a political action committee aimed at boosting progressive politicians that donated $5,000.
Also donating that amount was Raymond Landry, a Richmond-based pastor who was hired by Price’s administration to work with Price’s boyfriend, Antwon Cloird, on a team that identifies candidates for early release and assesses their readiness to rejoin society.
Price’s official campaign, Pamela Price for District Attorney 2028, raised $11,443 from July 1 through Sept. 30, bringing the total amount raised during the first nine months of the year to $41,158. The campaign has spent slightly more than half of that total this year, leaving it with $20,066 in cash on hand.
Messages left by this news organization with Price’s campaign were not returned by deadline Wednesday.
Several people donated $5,000 to the SAFE’s recall effort, including Lisa Alumkal, an Oakland small business owner; Bryan Giraudo, chief operating and financial officer of Gossamer Bio; Cornelius Jackson, an analyst at CCA Capital and Jon Reynolds, a real estate developer for Reynolds and Brown.
In an interview, Reynolds railed against Price’s work limiting prison sentences for criminal defendants. He said he decided to join the recall effort after reading a book by William Barr, the former attorney general under former President Donald Trump and voiced concerns about crime running rampant in the East Bay.
“I thoroughly disagree with her policy of releasing criminals rather indiscriminately, in my view,” said Reynolds, who grew up in Oakland. “I believe there should be consequences for serious actions.”
Andrew Peters, a senior vice president of strategy for Exelixis, donated $2,500, as did Thomas Sullivan, a retiree living in Piedmont.
Charlynn “Charly” Weissenbach — a former Alameda County prosecutor who resigned earlier this year to work for San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, donated $2,000. She’s been highly critical of Price, telling this news organization in the spring that under Price, “I did not feel like I could do my job the way I should be doing it: Ethically, transparently and with at least consideration — if not a focus — on the victims of crime.” Michael Morgan, a Livermore insurance agent, and Robert Townsend, an Oakland retiree, also chipped in $2,000.
Recall organizers have said they expect to need to raise about $2 million to fully fund the signature-gathering phase of the recall effort, which is still underway. On Wednesday, one of the recall’s organizers, Brenda Grisham, expressed confidence in the group’s fundraising abilities.
“The progress of funding is fine,” Grisham said. “We’re making do with what we got.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
