February 8, 2025 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

Recall Moves Look Like A Publicity Stunt:

There is little doubt that of the two active Republican candidates wanting to oppose Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s reelection next year, former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is far better known than Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who represents a largely rural district including vast stretches of desolate desert.

So what’s Donnelly to do in this era of the top two, open primary, when he needs to attract some Democratic and independent votes along with many conservative Republicans in order to get into a runoff with Brown?

How about a publicity stunt, and even better, how about one that will linger for months?

That’s what it seems to some Donnelly is now doing as he helps prepare attempts to recall the Democratic speaker of the state Assembly and several other fellow legislators. Donnelly, once active in the Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group and best known for getting arrested while trying to carry a Colt pistol onto an airliner in 2012, early on targeted only lawmakers with Spanish surnames who voted for California’s latest gun-control laws, although his strategist says there may be additions and/or subtractions from the initial list.

The strategist is Jennifer Kerns, a former spokeswoman both for the state Republican Party and for the campaign to pass the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban and a onetime Arnold Schwarzenegger press aide. More recently she helped run the successful early-autumn recall campaigns against two Colorado legislators who voted for gun controls. It’s fair to wonder whether it was coincidence that the recall notion surfaced about the time Kerns signed on with Donnelly.

Donnelly’s Minutemen connection and the choice at first to target only Hispanic legislators raise the question of whether the putative recalls might be racially motivated.

But other facts argue that this is more about publicity than anti-Latino bias or even gun control.

It’s not just the timing – why run a recall effort against people who will, for the most part, be up for reelection anyway within mere months of any possible recall vote? (Kerns’ answer: “This is different because it involves people feeling a Constitutional amendment has been usurped and that strikes a nerve with people.” She doesn’t say why this couldn’t just as well be the topic of a normal election campaign.)

And why does a nominal fiscal conservative want to spend millions of taxpayer dollars (any special election costs between $1 and $2.5 million) to hold votes so close to a regularly-scheduled election?

Publicity for Donnelly appears to be the most likely explanation. Especially since a successful recall appears possible against no more than one of the named targets. The Kerns response: “Tim Donnelly came to one of our recall meetings on his own before we ever joined with him.”

Donnelly’s most prominent potential whipping boy is Speaker John Perez. He will be termed out at the end of 2014.  In 2012, Perez won reelection to the Assembly by an 83-17 percent margin in his Los Angeles County district. It’s unlikely his support there will simply vanish.

Similarly, San Diego Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez won office in a special election last spring with 71 percent of the vote in a district where Democrats took 97 percent of all votes. She doesn’t look vulnerable.

The only likely victim listed is Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva of Fullerton, who eked out a very narrow win last November. But a recall campaign against just one lawmaker would not draw much attention, so if you want to increase Donnelly’s notoriety, you might go after several.

Donnelly and Kerns plainly hope few analysts will look at the actual vote counts from the most recent elections won by their named targets. The publicity motive is visible to anyone who does.

Donnelly says this effort is purely about gun control and the Second Amendment. But no California district involved looks remotely like the ones where recalls succeeded in Colorado.

Still, if the National Rifle Assn. and other conservative groups can be persuaded to spend as heavily in California as they did in Colorado, Donnelly could get a lot of free exposure.

But even if that happens and Donnelly can somehow parlay it into a runoff slot opposite Brown, he’d still have virtually no chance of winning next fall against the well-funded, currently popular governor.

in Opinion
<>Related Posts

SM.a.r.t Column: California’s Fire Safety Evolution: Meeting Modern Wildfire Challenges

February 2, 2025

February 2, 2025

The devastating fires that struck Los Angeles in January 2025 echo a pattern of increasingly destructive wildfires reshaping California’s approach...

SM.a.r.t Column: Peril, Prevention, and the Path Forward

January 26, 2025

January 26, 2025

The recent Palisades and Altadena fires brought Los Angeles’ inherent contradictions into sharp focus as residents fled their homes in...

SM.a.r.t Column: A New Path Ahead

January 19, 2025

January 19, 2025

The recent Palisades Fire is profoundly impacting the people of Los Angeles, displacing families, destroying property, and creating an enduring...

SM.a.r.t. Column: Adaptive Liveability

January 2, 2025

January 2, 2025

You know, sometimes you walk by a building and think, that place has some stories to tell. What if those...

SM.a.r.t Column: Happy Holidays

December 22, 2024

December 22, 2024

S.M.a.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) is wishing you a wonderful holiday season. We hope you are surrounded...

SM.a.r.t. Column: Preserving Santa Monica

December 15, 2024

December 15, 2024

Since Giving Tuesday I’m sure you have been bombarded with appeals from countless organizations, local, national, or even international that...

SM.a.r.t Column: Climbing The Vertical Learning Curve

December 8, 2024

December 8, 2024

The city is facing a financial crisis, the roots of which stretch back decades but have been made worse by...

SM.a.r.t Column: It’s Time To Inspect Balconies

November 24, 2024

November 24, 2024

About nine years ago, a fifth-floor balcony in a Berkeley apartment building collapsed, tragically killing several students gathered on it...

S.M.a.r.t Column: Your City is Broke

November 18, 2024

November 18, 2024

On December 10, the new City council will be seated fresh from their dominant win in the recent elections. There...

SM.a.r.t Column: Moving Ahead to the Future

November 10, 2024

November 10, 2024

As we write this, the election results are still trickling in. We’ll leave the deep analysis to others, but the...

Opinion: Fact Check: Why Vote Yes on Measure QS

November 1, 2024

November 1, 2024

Despite living in a famously progressive region, Santa Monicans are not immune from the same political misinformation and disinformation that...

SM.a.r.t Column: Lack of Oversight and No Accountability

October 31, 2024

October 31, 2024

S.M.a.r.t. periodically invites guest columnists to write opinion articles on topics of particular interests to our readers. Below is an...

SM.a.r.t Column: “Help! I’ve Fallen, and I …!!”, Cries Santa Monica!

October 25, 2024

October 25, 2024

Maybe fallen, but slipping for sure from being a desirable beachfront community that served all equally, the local residents who...

SM.a.r.t. Column: Vote

October 13, 2024

October 13, 2024

In a polarized country or City every vote counts. Regardless of which side of any issue or candidate you support,...

SM.a.r.t Column: Fact-Checking Election-Season Windbaggery

October 6, 2024

October 6, 2024

Claim: The state is requiring Santa Monica to build 9,000 apartments.Answer: Partially true, partially false. Santa Monica has a pretty...