Nampa School Board member Mike Kipp is up for a recall vote in the March 9th general election. The issue appears to be complaints over Kipp's support for hybrid learning in order to fight the coronavirus pandemic. This complaint seems to be hidden behind a general argument of a lack of representation.
As noted earlier, Idaho Falls and Pocatello-Chubbuck School Board Members are facing a March 9th recall.
New York State Senator Joseph Griffo (R) has proposed a recall law (which he has been doing since 2009), one that the New York State Republican Party Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy has also been pushing. New York currently does not have recall provisions for any state or local office.
The impetus for the GOP's support is supposedly the coronavirus pandemic-related use of emergency powers by Governor Andrew Cuomo, though every so often we hear of an attempt to adopt a recall in New York. Former Governor George Pataki is now backing the recall.
There has been a recent push for a bill allowing for special district recalls. This sounds a little more likely to move forward.
Here's a further look at the upcoming recall against four Woodmere Village Council members, Council President Jennifer Mitchell Earley and members Lisa Brockwell, Glenda Todd Miller and Craig Wade, rescheduled for February 23. Replacements would be named by the remaining council (2 out of the remaining 3 would choose). If they can't make a decision, the mayor chooses.
The recall was seemingly over the lack of a sidewalk on a road and an out of date website. Perhaps most interesting is a fight over chickens -- one person bought chicks for his children and they kept escaping. The council allegedly took too long in give a special use permit to construct a structure to hild the chicks, so they gave them away. The recall seems to also be about new residents versus old ones in a 900 person village, as well as a battle between the Council President and Mayor.
Androscoggin County Commissioners Isiah Lary, Brian Ames and John Michael are all facing recall efforts over a resolution stating that the state's mask mandate to fight the coronavirus pandemic is unconstitutional.
Petitioners need 10% of turnout in 90 days to get on the ballot, which is 710 against Ames (no numbers are provided for the other two).
Wrangell Mayor Steve Prysunka is facing a recall petition over a claim that he gave insufficient notice of an emergency meeting that imposed a $25 fine for violating a mask mandate to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The meeting was called five hours after Governor Mike Dunleavy sent an emergency cell phone alert about rising infections.
Alaska is a Malfeasance Standard state, so petitioners would have to meet a statutorily delineated violation to get on the ballot, though after the recent Supreme Court decision in favor of the Dunleavy recall attempt, the courts may allow this recall. Petitioners would need 104 signatures.
Prysunka faced an earlier recall attempt in January, but he had not yet gotten out of the 120 day grace period.
Natick Town Meeting Member Suzanne E. Ianni, who was arrested for her role in the January 6th Capitol riot is not eligible for a recall. Ianni, a leader of an anti-LGBT group, was photographed inside the Capitol building and charged with unlawful entry and disorderly conduct. There has been petitions against her, but a Board of Selectmen has said that he position is not eligible for the town charter's recall provision.
The recall attempt against Pocatello/Chubbuck School Board Trustees Jackie Cranor, Janie Gebhardt and Dave Mattson has gotten to the ballot and been scheduled for March 9. Petitioners need 164 against Cranor (they got 227), 206 against Mattson (they got 270) and 351 against Gebhardt (they got 376).
The recall is over the board's decision to continue a hybrid learning model in order to ward off the coronavirus pandemic. The parents wanted full-in school model. There is also complaints about a boundary issue and a decision to retire a Native American mascot.
The recall of Aichi Governor Hidekai Omura had hundreds of thousands of signatures thrown out because they look to be forgeries (83% of 435,000) and 48% were not listed on voter roles. The recall effort is led by a Holocaust-denier and denier of the Nanking Massacre (who for some reason is on an arts festival committee). The event was an arts festival which included, among other art, a statue of a girl representing Korean comfort women, who were forced into sexual slavery in WWII.
A proposed recall attempt against Lee Board of Selectmen members Patricia Carlino and perhaps others including chair David Consolati seems to have been abandoned practically before it started. The fight was over a toxic dump. The recall seems to be just a Facebook post, though there is still a push against the dump plans.
Since there's some much news on the Newsom recall, I'm going for the roundup move.
1) Former Trump backers, including venture capitalist and real estate developers and others have raised $3.5 million for the Recall Newsom effort, which should help it get to the ballot, though a drop in the bucket for the race itself.
2) Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has given some cash to Newsom, though it seems it is for his 2022 race. We'll have quite a bit more on the financial issues.
3) Let the Great mentioning begin! We've heard about San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and John Simon, but here's far right social media guy Mike Cernovich, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, former Congressman Doug Ose (R) all tossing their names into the ring.
4) Taking his hat out of the ring is billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who put in a good chunk of money for the recall effort, but now claims he will not run.
5) 171 state recalls have been attempted -- only 10 have gotten onto the ballot (3 in the 1910s, 4 in the 1990s, 2 in the 2000s and one in 2018).
6) A veteran of the Davis and Walker recalls looks at the potential Newsom one.
7) I'm quoted in a few places, including here, here, here and here
Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Chieh (or Jie) survived a recall vote on February 6. The was 65,391-55,261 (54-46%) against the recall, with a 41.54% turnout. The vote not only failed due to the support for Huang, but the vote needed 25% of eligible voters (72,892) to vote in favor of the recall, due to its absentee veto requirement.
The recall appears to be revenge for the ouster of Mayor (and Kuomintang former presidential candidate) Han Kuo-yu on June 6. Chieh was elected as a member of the New Power Party but left as part of the 2014 Sunflower Movement.
Former Warwick City Council candidate Danny Hall, who is leading an effort to push for the resignation of school board members Karen Bachus and Judy Cobden, is looking into how to adopt a recall for the city (among other changes he is suggesting).
One question I've been receiving has been about the timing of a potential California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) recall.
Unfortunately, I did not look and misstated the law (here's the Secretary of State's handbook on it), though it actually may be close enough to the same timeframe. I cited the local recall law, which requires recalls to be scheduled to be held from 88-125 days after the validation.
Fortunately, Liz Kreutz from KGO-TV pointed this out (after 10 years writing this blog, I can't say enough about how great local news reporters are). The Governor and other state-level officials have a more compressed timeframe of 60-80 days. But, due to other parts of the law, it will take quite a bit longer than that. Additionally, a relatively new law gives Newsom a fighting tool to try and prevent the recall -- getting recall petition signers to remove their name. I'll discuss that below.
The timeframe appears to be:
March 17 -- Petitions must all be handed in
April 29 -- counties have to verify signatures (this is 30 business days after the handed in deadline)
10 Days Later -- Secretary of State has 10 business days to determine that the signatures meet the requirement. One wrinkle is that you five counties to hand in at least 1% of voter turnout in their counties (so, for example, you couldn't just collect in Los Angeles and San Diego and get on the ballot). This is requirement is usually ignored in any explanation, as it will undoubtedly be met.
30 Days Later -- Recall signers have 30 business days in which they can remove their names (see below for more details).
10 Days Later -- County officials have to report in 10 business days how many signatures are struck.
30 Days Later -- The Secretary of State contacts the Department of Finance and estimates the cost of the recall, which gives them 30 days to review and comment
60-80 Days Later -- The recall must be scheduled in this timeframe by the Lieutenant Governor. In 2003, the recall was scheduled for the 76th day.
Unless: If there is a regularly scheduled statewide election, within 180 days of certification, they can join the recall with that event. However, there is no statewide election until June 2022.
One point I want to tackle is the removal of signatures (or signature strike law). This law traces back to 2017, when there was a hope among Senate Democrats that they could ward off the Senator Josh Newman recall by allowing signers to remove their names. This did not help Newman, as the recall got on the ballot and Newman lost (only to comeback and win in 2020).
However, it did help Newport Beach Councilman Scott Peotter in 2017. Beyond some other issues with the signatures, Peotter submitted 205 signature-withdrawal requests (he actually handed in 1783 requests, it could be 1500 of those were people unsure of whether they signed). Those 205 requests were enough to get the recall off the ballot -- petitioners needed 8445 signatures and ended with 8339.
At least two other states have a signature removal (or signature revoking) law, Florida and Nevada (though Nevada's hasn't been fully decided by the State Supreme Court.
A Berkeley Institute of Government Studies poll puts California Governor Gavin Newsom (R) at 46% for a job approval rating, down from about 66% in September. A Public Policy poll has him at 52%.
The IGS poll has a 49% opposed to a recall and 36% seeing it as good, with 45%-36% opposing the recall.
For whatever it's worth, Newsom seemed to outperform the polls in 2018, when he got 62% of the vote. The polls for his opponent (John Cox) seemed more on point.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has announced that he is going to run in any possible replacement race against California Governor Gavin Newsom (and may run in 2022 if the recall doesn't get on the ballot). Faulconer has raised over a $1M. He just finished his term in office in December. At the time of mayoralty, Faulconer was the only Republican serving as mayor of city with over one million people.
New Gloucester Selectman George Colby resigned (in a zoom meeting) after the recall effort against him made the ballot (it was set to be scheduled for March 30. The recall effort against Colby moved forward after petitioners had 300 signatures verified. They handed in 335 signatures and needed 293 (10% of turnout in the district in the last gubernatorial election) to get on the ballot.
Colby been censured after yelling out racist comments at the end of the Pledge of Allegiance during a recent board meeting (he allegedly said "Liberty and Justice for all, for everyone. Even us white folks!). Recently, an email exchange from 2010 in which Colby allegedly used a racist slur has received attention, though Colby claims that the slur was on a forwarded email chain.
The lead petitioner was a former Selectman. There is a supermajority provision, which required that 55 percent of voters oppose Colby for the recall to lead to his removal.
Here's an op-ed I wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican on the recall attempt against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, who was arrested for rioting at the US Capitol on January 6. I also wrote a bit on the history of the recall in New Mexico. Here's some earlier coverage of the Griffin recall effort.
Shepherd School Board Trustee Matthew Showalter is appealing the approval of a petition against him. Showalter is accused of disparaging the name of an opponent's junior varsity football team's player. Showalter apologized for the comment and stepped down as Vice Chair, though has remained on the school board. The petition was originally rejected due to a wrong date.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is facing recall threats from the Homeless Union President after extreme weather destroyed homeless encampments. Steinberg, the former California Senate President Pro Tempore (Majority Leader), is also the co-chair of the Governor's State-wide Task Force on Homelessness. Petitioners would need signatures totaling 10% of registered voters to get on the ballot, which looks to be about 27, 410.
Update: Petitioners are fighting over whether they have met the requirements to get the petitions. The debate is about which law predominates, the city charter or the state one.
