I’m surprised to see the story on the averted mayoral recall buried so deep in the DMN‘s site. To any city politics junkie, this stuff is pure gold.
In my mind, there are two big questions unanswered unasked in the coverage so far:
- What was the deal? Clearly (unless the point below comes into play), some sort of 11th-hour deal was made. You don’t engage in the massive coordinated effort it takes to get 89,000 signatures and then walk away to avoid rancor and unrest. You instigate a recall because of rancor and unrest.
- 89,000 isn’t enough? I’d like to hear from one of our more politically-connected readers on this, but my recollection from talking to petition pushers is that you need at least 100,000 signatures to get 73,000 good ones. Folks who aren’t registered voters; duplicates; people making joke signatures. So, there’s an outside shot that they knew that the signatures wouldn’t stand up.
- Is there a connection between this and the Fantroy/Hill investigation? A clear threat, perhaps, about the vigor with which they’d be pursued if the preachers didn’t back down?
Unfortunately, unless a really enterprising reporter pulls one out, we won’t find out what, if any, promise was made to the Clergy for Recall, until that promise is broken.
And I’d bet my fedora that it will be.
