Failure of McGoldrick Recall to Qualify Should Give Proponents Pause

Because state law requires them to collect all 3,573 signatures in 120 days, proponents must complete the petition gathering by September 14th without having to start again from scratch. While that's a doable goal (especially with the group's financial resources and high-priced consultants), putting the recall on the same ballot as the Democratic presidential primary is a doomed strategy. Progressives will be voting in droves next year, so a campaign that urges the ouster of a Supervisor because he championed Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park and a bus-only lane on Geary Boulevard will not get much traction. The June 2008 ballot should be more favorable, but by then McGoldrick will almost be out of office - which calls into question the sheer absurdity of such an endeavor.

To recall a San Francisco Supervisor, the City Charter requires that at least 10% of registered voters in the district sign a petition within a 120-day period. Proponents of the McGoldrick recall took out papers at the Department of Elections on May 18th, so they still technically have until September to qualify a recall election. But in order to have the recall coincide with the Mayor's race, the Elections Department needed thirty days to verify the signatures before the July cut-off. They failed to get it on time, so the next possibility is the February 2008 ballot, which will not help their cause.

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