Election officials said last week that a recall drive against Assemblyman Anthony Adams did not gather enough signatures to move forward, but recall backers said Monday they believe something odd or possibly fraudulent might be to blame.
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“It’s not over, certainly,” said Mike Schroeder, a former California Republican Party chairman and a key Adams recall proponent.
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“I just think they’re grasping,” said San Bernardino County Registrar Kari Verjil. “That’s not true at all. We make sure that all registration cards are entered in our system.” (SB Sun)
Boo-hoo, it can’t be that you just didn’t get the signatures, it’s gotta be someone else. The county. The firm you paid. A trickster.
So, John, Ken, and the gang, I think the phrase you are looking for is “sore loser.”
Back in the February budget battle, notorious right-wing SoCal talk show hosts John and Ken put the heads of Republican legislators who voted for the tax increases on sticks as a threat of grassroots wingnut revolt. Their primary enemy became GOP Assemblymember Anthony Adams (AD-59), who they targeted with a recall effort, gathering and submitting signatures to put a recall on the ballot. It was to be the biggest demonstration yet of the power the KFI duo have over California politics – and the Republican Party.
Except they failed.
We learned today that the recall effort will fall 11,000 signatures short of qualifying for the ballot, according to the random sampling projections. John and Ken turned in 58,000 signatures but the sampling projects less than half – about 24,500 – will be valid, short of the 35,825 they needed to make the ballot.
Chalk this up as a pretty big FAIL on the part of John and Ken and their own SoCal version of the teabagger movement. Armed with one of the West Coast’s most powerful radio signals and one of the highest rated shows in the region, they still couldn’t muster the signatures to even get this before voters.
It is hard to argue that Anthony Adams is anything but a right-wing Republican. The freshman Republican talks, acts, and votes like a right-winger.
Save for one very important series of votes: the budget. Adams was the final vote for the budget, a rather bold move for a freshman without substantial resources in the bank. Props to him on that, as it looks like he will now be facing a recall election
With one week left to gather signatures, backers of the drive to boot Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Claremont, say about 60,000 people have signed petitions to call for a recall election.
Recall proponents have targeted Adams because he voted this year for a budget deal that included raising taxes – something Adams pledged he would never do. Adams has defended his decision, saying the state could not have dealt with its crushing budget deficits this year without additional tax money.
To qualify for the ballot, the recall drive needs about 36,000 valid signatures from registered voters in Adams’ sprawling district, which stretches from San Bernardino County’s High Desert to Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley. Recall organizer Lee Lowry said the 60,000 or so signatures gathered so far should guarantee that proponents have the necessary 36,000 valid signatures. (SB Sun 10/6/09)
So, where does a Democrat come down on this district? The 59th is almost evenly split between LA and San Bernardino counties, and has an 8.7% Republican registration advantage. It’s really not a likely pickup opportunity, especially in a special election scenario.
Adams is DumbOnCrime, anti-marriage equality, and generally right wing. But, given the alternatives, including the return of Dick Mountjoy, Adams seems relatively reasonable.
I’m interested in the opinion of Calitics readers. If you live in the 59th, or not, how would you vote? Would you vote to recall? Would you actively support Adams, say by telling your friends to oppose the recall?
• Great news that Californians Euna Lee and Laura Ling will be released from a North Korean prison camp after an intervention by former President Clinton. I (Dave) know Euna from working with her briefly back in San Francisco, and am very pleased by this news, both for the women, their families and friends, and the tireless activists who worked for their release. Maybe Current TV, Lee and Ling’s employers, will bother to mention their absence now, for the first time in the four-plus months since they were captured at the North Korean/Chinese border.
• Two ships from California will be heading to the Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean over the next few weeks. The Patch kills thousands of sea birds and scores of other wildlife each year as the plastic is ingested. Once swallowed, it either blocks a digestive tract or poisons the animal, and can never be digested in any meaningful form.
• CA-10 News: Anthony Woods has picked up the endorsements of Richard Clarke, the former White House Counterterrorism czar, Gino Van Gundy, a former candidate in the CA-10 race, and Suisun City Mayor Pete Sanchez. The endorsements of Sanchez and Clarke are quite a boon. Along with his national appearances, Woods has been making quite the waves recently.
• News on the money race in the Democratic primary in AD-21. Openly gay supervisor Rich Gordon holds a very slender lead over his competitors Yoriko Kishimoto, a Palo Alto City council member, Marc Berman, an attorney, and friend of Calitics, Kai Stinchcombe. Calitics has not made an endorsement in this race.
• Lots of money in the Anthony Adams recall campaign, on both sides. Recall proponents have previously said that they are on track to recall Adams, and now have $81K to play around with. It’s not a huge sum, but likely enough to ensure that the recall will get on the ballot. And once it’s on the ballot you have the other candidates to push it forward. One rumored candidate is CaveMan Supreme Dick Mountjoy (ya, the guy who ran for Senate in 2006). He served in that seat as it went to term limits, and still has at least one term left. He’s said he’s considering it a long time ago, but I’ve not heard anything definite.
Adams himself has raised $46K in a recall account, and another 200K+ in his own campaign account. That should give him a decent shot of defeating the recall.
• The OC Board of Supes will look at whether to appeal in the pension case involving the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. Pension increases were granted in 2001, but Sup. John Moorlach argued that the County should sue to rescind those increases. Needless to say, as there was no basis for such a change outside of the contract process, the County lost. Moorlach wants to take it all the way to the Supreme Court. His argument to do so? Most of the costs of litigation are out of the way, let’s keep appealing. Uuhhh, not so much, appellate litigation ain’t cheap. Moorlach wants to keep spending taxpayers money to make his point against the unions though. Who knows how this will turn out.
• A couple days late on this, but here’s an appreciation of California’s pride and joy and the hardest-working legislator in show business, Henry Waxman.
• If only it were this easy with the governor: Pacific Grove mayor Dan Cort is going to resign in order to avoid a recall threatened by a longtime local activist. Word is that Cort, a progressive Democrat, had grown tired of spending all his time as mayor dealing with the city’s ongoing financial crisis. The backers of the recall, angry that the city is giving raises to police while cutting other services, are targeting other progressive councilmembers. I [Robert] don’t approve of this, but it makes for interesting theater in the town a few blocks to the west.
• CalSTRS, along with CalPERS, has been a leading voice in the good corporate governance movement. Their next mission: get more women on corporate boards. They did a study, and apparently companies with higher female representation on the board fared better.
• Apparently some folks are mad that the Los Angeles plan, Measure B on the March ballot, to create 400 MW of solar power is using city workers instead of private contractors that do solar installations across the region. Taking a different tack, City controller Laura Chick has come out strongly against the plan, which was backed by Mayor Villaraigosa and Council President Eric Garcetti because cost estimates are very squishy.
• We keep trying to break out from under the thumb of the prison receiver. This time it is AG Jerry Brown trying to argue it is unnecessary. Apparently, and somewhat laughably, he thinks the state should take control of the situation. The trouble is that we haven’t actually done anything to correct the problems that lead to the receiver’s appointment in the first place.
Our leaders have nobody to blame but themselves on this one. Their lack of courage, with only a few notable exceptions like Gloria Romero, has been exceptional in its cowardice.
• Another one: Apparently the primary fights are set to begin. Asm. Anthony Adams is already getting primary threats from none other than Dick Mountjoy. Yes, the same Dick Mountjoy that lost to DiFi by like 40 points or something. Apparently he has a term left, but hasn’t said anything official. He’ll just wait and see who will devour Mr. Adams first. Let the feeding frenzy begin.
• Check the video of Sen. Steinberg talking at the Sacramento Press Club (posted here). Regular readers might be interested in his explanation of the Big 5 meetings at about the 9:30 mark. (h/t CapAlert)
