It has been over three months since California Governor Gray Davis was ousted in an unprecedented recall election. Now, there is another recall effort afoot right here in the District. A citizens’ group calling themselves “Save our City” has organized an effort to unseat D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.
The group filed a formal “notice of intent” with the District’s Board of Elections and Ethics on Tuesday. This begins a long and complicated process to get a recall measure on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Save our City, in a 200-word statement accompanying their notice of intent, accuses Williams of, among other things, “malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance.” The group believes that Williams has ignored the problems facing the city in such areas as education and poverty, while schmoozing with investors over property development downtown. They also question Williams’ dedication to home-rule and the cause for D.C. statehood.
Williams has 10 days to file a response. At that point, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics will decide whether or not to authorize the recall effort. If they give Save our City a thumbs-up, the group will begin to collect the 36,300 signatures needed. These must be collected and given to the board for review by July 28, at which point they will be examined for validity.
Williams has vowed to fight the recall, saying he “will use every effort at [his] disposal to crush the recall.” He claims that the recall, in addition to being unwarranted, will only bring negative publicity to the city. A spokesperson for the mayor also stated that the group is focusing on problems that the District has faced for years. “None of these are new issues,” he said.
At this time, most are taking this effort with a pile of salt. However, come July, the results may surprise everyone-just as they did in California. Regardless, this may serve as a wake-up call for Williams.
Save our City has representatives spread around the city, with members in every ward except Ward 3. They claim to have more than 600 volunteers ready to canvass the city for signatures. The group is also bipartisan, with a Democrat, a Republican and a Statehood Party member serving as co-chairs.
It is not clear at this time if anyone within the recall movement is aiming for the office of mayor. And if the recall were successful, it would be possible for Williams to run in the replacement election with only 2,000 signatures.
Considering that Williams was forced to run as a write-in candidate in the 2002 primary and was still victorious, it is unlikely that we will see a new mayor any earlier than 2006.
