In January 2024, several activists announced they were launching a recall campaign against Mayor Sheng Thao.
Her chief of staff, Leigh Hanson, dismissed the campaign as “led by losers.” But internally, Thao and her people scrambled to figure out a strategy to fight back, city records show.
In Hanson’s calendar from March 2024 there is a rough blueprint for fighting the recall. The document outlines where the money for the recall was coming from: “Foundational Oakland PAC,” “Conway,” “Dreyfuss.”
Tech billionaire Ron Conway was one of the initial major funders of the mayoral recall. Philip Dreyfuss, a hedge fund executive, ended up bankrolling the recall, providing over $500,000 for signature-gathering and other expenses…