Less than halfway into her term Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao looks set to face the city's first-ever mayoral recall election this fall, in the nation's largest mayoral recall vote since 2011. If she loses Oakland will see a rotating cast of characters in the mayor's seat: thanks to little-noticed changes in state recall law, Oakland could have four mayors in just three months. That bizarre outcome is not Oakland's fault. As with the shambles Alameda County is suffering in the District Attorney Pamela Price recall, Oakland's pickle is yet more fallout from the legislature's recent move against local recalls.

The legislature precipitated this turmoil with its quiet changes to local recall laws in 2022, spurred by the aftermath of the failed 2021 recall targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. Despite calls for reform, the legislature couldn't agree on any of the various proposals to revise state-officer recall procedures, and changing those laws requires a voter-approved constitutional amendment anyway. So the legislature instead picked the low-hanging fruit and revised state law on local recalls—which do not require state electorate approval to change.