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Ballotpedia's 2015 Recall Analysis
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End-of-year report |
172 separate recall efforts |
California Jefferson County, Colo. Clatskanie, Ore. Guadalupe, Ariz. |
References |
December 16, 2015 (updated December 10, 2021)
By Ballotpedia staff
Ballotpedia's annual report presents an overview of recall efforts across the country and highlights the most notable recall efforts of 2015. Out of the 294 officials targeted for recall in a total of 172 recall efforts, 70 officials faced recall elections. Out of those 70, 47 were recalled and 23 were not. There were an additional 12 officials who resigned from office prior to the culmination of recall efforts.
State officials in the Southwest were subject to high-profile recall efforts this year. Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas (R) was elected in November 2014 but faced questions about her lack of experience and partisanship prior to taking office. A group called The Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas kicked off their effort to remove the superintendent from office this summer, with estimated signatures at less than one-third of the total needed for a recall election as of December 1, 2015.[1][2]
California State Sen. Richard Pan (D) attracted a recall effort after his support for legislation requiring proof of vaccination prior to enrollment in schools throughout the state. Senate Bill 277, which was co-authored by Pan, does not take effect until July 1, 2016, and drew the ire of a group called SB 277 Recalls. The group opposed the legislation on parental and religious rights grounds, vowing to recall all officials involved in its passage.[3][4]
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Efforts at the local level showed the gamut of results for recall elections. An effort to remove three members of the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Directors in Colorado via recall coincided with a regularly scheduled election for two other seats. Jeffco United for Action supported the recall on the grounds that board members were wasting public money and restricting the transparency of board proceedings. The entire board was replaced by candidates supported by teacher organizations.[5] In Clatskanie, Oregon, Mayor Diane Pohl survived a recall election in November 2015 following efforts to remove her from office after a controversy surrounding the firing of a former police chief.[6] Mayor Rebecca Jimenez is facing a March 2016 recall election in Guadalupe, Arizona, after an indictment in September 2015 for welfare fraud.[7]
Statistics
Results
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In 2015, a total of 172 recall efforts were organized against 294 officials. Efforts against 54 of those officials were still ongoing. Recall efforts against 158 officials did not make it to the ballot. Of the 70 officials who faced recall elections, 47 were removed from office and 23 were retained. Twelve other officials resigned before those recalls could go to a vote. A breakdown of the various recall outcomes for targeted officials is displayed in the chart below.
TargetsCity council members were targeted for recall the most this year, with school board members coming in second. A total of 77 school board leaders faced recall efforts, while 104 city council members were targeted. Recalls were also started against 34 mayors. At the state level, citizens launched recall campaigns against 12 legislators and three state executives. County leaders faced the least number of recalls, with efforts against 15 county commissioners, seven county officials, and one sheriff. A breakdown of the various recall targets is displayed in the chart below.
Targets by stateBallotpedia covered recalls in 31 states. California saw the highest number of officials included in recall efforts with 72. Arizona came in second with 42, and Michigan came in third with 37. The map below details how many officials were included in recall efforts in each state in 2015. The states depicted in gray did not have any officials included in recall efforts.
Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane DouglasArizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas is facing recall over her secrecy, lack of experience and political bent. Douglas faced recall threats before she was sworn into office. An online group called "Recall Diane Douglas" wrote on its website,
The group said it would begin gathering signatures after a legally required six-month waiting period.[1][10] The Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas announced in October 2015 that it had gathered about 100,000 signatures to recall Diane Douglas. More than 1,000 volunteers in the state were working to collect signatures at the time of the announcement. The preliminary count of signatures was about one-fourth of the 366,128 required by December 30 to trigger a recall election.[11][12] The Coalition held a "Day of Action" over the second weekend of November. Volunteers gathered signatures in more than a dozen cities at libraries, post offices, coffee houses and craft fairs.[13] The "Recall Diane Douglas" Facebook group encouraged people to discuss recalling Douglas over the Thanksgiving weekend and to sign up petitioners in Black Friday shopping lines. When local ABC affiliate ABC15 asked for a progress report, the group would not give an exact number but said it had tens of thousands of valid signatures. The following week, the Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas announced that it did not have an accurate count but had fewer than 100,000 signatures, falling far short of the required 366,000.[2][14] California State Sen. Richard PanState Senator Richard Pan (D) is being targeted for recall due to his support of Senate Bill 277, which requires mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren. Pan, a pediatrician and the co-author of SB 277, crafted the bill in response to a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland. Senate Bill 277 requires that parents show proof of their children's vaccinations before they are enrolled in California schools. The bill also eliminates an exemption to vaccinations for personal beliefs.[4] The bill was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on June 30, 2015, but does not take effect until July 1, 2016.[15][16] SB 277 Recalls, the group that filed the recall, has vowed to recall all politicians who voted in favor of SB 277 because the group believes that "it should be up to the parent to decide what is best, and when, for each child based on receiving factual and non-hysterical health information."[17] Supporters of the recall need to collect 35,926 valid signatures by December 31, 2015, to force a recall election.[18] Jeffco Public Schools, ColoradoFor the first time in the district's history, Jeffco Public Schools received an entirely new board of education on November 19, 2015.[19][20] This was possible because a recall election for three seats on the board was held on November 3, 2015, the same day the other two seats on the board were up for election.[21] The recall targeted Julie Williams, John Newkirk and Ken Witt from Districts 1, 2 and 5, respectively.[5] The three members were the conservative majority on the board and had been elected to the board in 2013 as a slate of candidates promising reform.[22] Some of the reforms they implemented, such as introducing a pay-for-performance policy for teachers, were met with protests and "sick-outs" from teachers and students.[23]  The recall petition was filed by Jeffco United for Action. The group accused Williams, Newkirk and Witt of attempting to censor AP U.S. history classes, pushing out over 700 district educators due to their new policies, wasting "millions of taxpayer dollars," violating open meeting laws, limiting public input at board meetings, releasing private student information without consent and bullying students and parents.[24] In response, all three board members highlighted what they saw as positive changes they had helped bring about in the district, including raising teacher salaries, making union negotiations transparent, providing free full-day kindergarten to families in need and bringing greater equality in how the district funds its schools.[25] Over 60 percent of voters in each district that held a recall election cast ballots in favor of ousting the sitting board members. In their place, Brad Rupert, Susan Harmon and Ron Mitchell were elected to the board. The three newcomers ran together as the "Clean Slate." Ali Lasell and Amanda Stevens, also members of the "Clean Slate," won the two seats up for general election.[5][26] Mayor Diane Pohl, Clastkanie, OregonMayor Diane Pohl faced scrutiny and a recall election over her handling of accusations of misconduct by former Clatskanie Police Chief Marvin Hoover. Recall organizer Virginia Leloff accused Pohl of failure to fully investigate an official complaint by police officer Alex Stone over alleged racist remarks by Hoover. Leloff's recall petition said that Pohl was wrong to move past the matter prior to Hoover's resignation and the completion of an Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) investigation in the chief's behavior.[27] The Clatskanie City Council and Mayor Pohl opted to accept Hoover's resignation on September 8, 2015, rather than pursue further investigations.[28] Pohl countered the petitioner's complaints by suggesting that the decision to allow Hoover to resign was reached in consultation with the city attorney and the city council. Pohl also noted that the city attorney advised against reviewing Stone's complaint until after the completion of the DPSST's investigation, which was not finished prior to Hoover's resignation.[27] Leloff triggered a recall election on November 17, 2015, by submitting 140 valid signatures to the Clatskanie City Recorder. The signatures were approved by the city and the Columbia County Elections Department on October 20, 2015. The recall effort was defeated at the polls, with 53.1 percent of voters opting to keep Pohl in office.[29][6] Mayor Rebecca Jimenez, Guadalupe, ArizonaMayor Rebecca Jimenez was targeted for recall by Vice Mayor Andrew Sanchez following her September 2015 indictment on four charges of welfare fraud. These indictments stemmed from Jimenez's failure to count her boyfriend's salary on an application for food stamps. Jimenez was sentenced to unsupervised probation and $10,500 in restitution to the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Sanchez led the petition drive against Jimenez and gathered 230 signatures to force a recall election on March 8, 2016. Jimenez issued a response to the recall petition citing her accomplishments, such as creating a budget surplus and ending court corruption; this response will appear on the recall ballot.[7][30] See also
Footnotes
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