Here’s the first glimpse of who is spending money to oust Alameda County DA Pamela Price

The most generous donor is a ‘angel investor’ from Lafayette.

OAKLAND, Calif. — According to newly released campaign filings, 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.

The recall’s financial backers were identified for the first time Wednesday as having donated to Save Alameda For Everyone, or SAFE, a group formed over the summer to unseat Price. The first-term district attorney was elected last year on a platform of criminal justice reform and combating the legacy of mass incarceration in the East Bay.

According to the filings, SAFE raised more than $212,662 between July 1 and September 30. SAFE has received significant support from a group called Reviving the Bay Area, which spent $48,000 on polling and donated $230,000 in October. According to campaign records, one of the group’s officers, Philip Dreyfuss, was also listed as a founding member of SAFE.

Ryan R. Sutton-Gee, a Lafayette man who described himself as a “angel investor” and donated $49,000 to the recall effort, is the largest individual donor to SAFE so far. Other generous donors included Peterson Properties of Oakland, which gave $10,000, and Ilya Sukhar, a San Franciscan and Matrix Parters partner, who gave $9,000. Oakland’s Auyeung Market Street, LLC, contributed $7,500.

The fundraising haul for the recall effort far outpaced that of a committee formed in September to support Price called Protect the Win for Public Safety — Oppose the Recall of DA Price.

According to the filings, it raised $15,284 in September and spent roughly two-thirds of that amount on legal and media expenses. Real Justice PAC, a political action committee dedicated to supporting progressive politicians, contributed $5,000.

Raymond Landry, a Richmond-based pastor 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, also contributed that amount.

From July 1 to September 30, Price’s official campaign, Pamela Price for District Attorney 2028, raised $11,443, bringing the total amount raised during the first nine months of the year to $41,158. This year, the campaign has spent slightly more than half of its total, leaving it with $20,066 in cash on hand.

Messages left with Price’s campaign by this news organization were not returned by Wednesday’s deadline.

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 all contributed $5,000 to the SAFE’s recall effort.

Reynolds blasted Price’s work limiting prison sentences for criminal defendants in an interview. 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, in which he expressed concern about the East Bay’s crime problem.

“I completely disagree with her policy of releasing criminals indiscriminately,” Reynolds, who grew up in Oakland, said. “I believe there should be consequences for serious actions.”

Exelixis senior vice president of strategy Andrew Peters donated $2,500, as did Piedmont retiree Thomas Sullivan.

Former Alameda County prosecutor Charlynn “Charly” Weissenbach, who resigned earlier this year to work for San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, donated $2,000. She has been harshly critical of Price, telling this news organization in the spring, “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, each contributed $2,000 to the cause.

Recall organizers have stated that they expect to need about $2 million to fully fund the recall effort’s signature-gathering phase, which is still ongoing. Brenda Grisham, one of the recall’s organizers, expressed confidence in the group’s fundraising abilities on Wednesday.

“Funding is moving along nicely,” Grisham said. “We’re making do with what we got.”