Kwame Brown recall, District of Columbia (2012)
| District of Columbia City Council recall |
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| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2012 Recalls in District of Columbia District of Columbia recall laws City council recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Kwame Brown from his elected position as chairman of the city council of Washington, D.C. was launched in January 2012.[1] The recall effort was abandoned in April 2012.[2]
Reasons for recall
Frederick Butler, a Ward 6 resident, organized the recall effort. He contemporaneously organized the recall effort against DC mayor Vince Gray.[3] Butler accused Brown of violating his oath of office through unethical behavior. He said, “The citizens of D.C. are frustrated. How many years of corrupt government do we need to deal with? I think it’s time to take matters into our own hands.”[4] At the time of the recall effort's launch, Brown faced allegations of campaign finance violations, and he was under federal investigation for campaign-related activities.[5][4] Butler's petition charged that Brown "violated the public trust."[6]
Path to the ballot
Butler filed recall paperwork on January 11th, 2012. Brown had 10 days to issue an optional response that would be included on recall petitions.[1]
On February 1st, Butler failed to attend a session of the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. As a result, there was a two-week delay in the launch of the petitions for circulation. Butler said he planned to pick up the petitions on February 13th.[7] On February 13th, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics officially adopted the petitions, allowing Butler to begin circulating them.[8]
Recall organizers had 180 days to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in the District of Columbia, or approximately 45,000 people. There was also a ward distribution requirement that required recall organizers to submit signatures from at least 10% of registered voters in five of the city's eight wards.[7]
If enough signatures had been submitted, a special recall election could have taken place in November 2012.[3]
In April 2012, Butler announced that he was suspending the recall effort. He said that he believed ongoing federal probes into Brown's campaign activities would eventually remove him from office, and in the meantime, the recall effort was a "poor use" of money.[2]
See also
- Laws governing recall in the District of Columbia
- Political recall efforts, 2012
- City council recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 DCist, "Paperwork Filed to Recall Gray, Brown," January 11, 2012
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 My FOX DC, "Effort To Recall DC Mayor Vincent Gray, Council Chairman Kwame Brown Stalls," April 5, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 NBC Washington, "Activist Ready to Launch Vince Gray Recall Campaign"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Washington Post, "Activist initiates recall proceedings against District of Columbia mayor, council chairman," January 11, 2012
- ↑ Washington Post, "Kwame Brown addresses campaign finance allegations," June 14, 2011
- ↑ NBC Washington, "D.C. Recall Notice Filed Against Gray, Brown ," January 11, 2012
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The DCist, "Recall Petitions Delayed by Two Weeks," February 1, 2012 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "times" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ The Washington Examiner, "After false start, Gray recall effort gets official blessing," February 13, 2012
