California: Oakland Mayoral recall makes the ballot and mayor's home raided

More exciting news in Alameda County, as clerk announced that the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has made the ballot, which was followed the next day by news that the FBI raided her house. This is the first recall in Oakland Mayoral history and will be the largest by population for a mayor since 2011 (Omaha and Miami-Dade -- though that was a county). Internationally (Lima, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Duisburg, and Kaohsiung, and on the county and state level, there have been larger, but not for a mayor. 

No word yet on the invalidation rate, but petitioners handed in over 40,000 signatures, which was more than she won on the first round of her election. They need 24,638. 

The big issue has been crime. Thao has fired the Oakland Police Chief and rejected three possible replacements proposed by a committee. One of the leaders of the recall effort is Alameda County Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, who served on the Police Commission and was removed by Thao.

As I explain here, Oakland uses state law for the recall, which kicks the replacement decision back to the city -- and we have an interesting wrinkle in the replacement provision (Section 303), which works like this:

If the mayor is removed, the President of the Council fills the position. If it is over a year (as it is here), there is a special election within 120 days, with a potential extension of 90 days to tie it into a regularly scheduled election. They will use ranked choice. 

The wrinkle is that City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas is running for Alameda County Supervisor and she came in first in the top two race. If Fortunato Bas wins that race on November 5 (which would be the same day as the recall) and the recall succeeds, she presumably would serve as Mayor until January, when she would be replaced by... another council member? So, we may be looking at four mayors in a short time frame. 

Thao will be the second mayor to ever face a recall in Oakland. The first was Mayor Frank Mott "the Mayor who Built Oakland" way back on August 5, 1912, during his fourth term. Mott survived 17,139-10,846. The recall was started by the Wobblies -- the Industrial Workers of the World.