Recall Update

In less than eight weeks of signature gathering, recall proponents report the number of signatures collected is nearly 6,000. Signature gatherers say the job is getting easier as residents are becoming more aware of the recall. Approximately 9,300 valid signatures are needed by Aug. 25.

Two interesting reports came from volunteers at storefronts during the past week. On May 13, a female MacLean supporter’s tactics backfired. She came to the recall table in front of a store to block voters from signing the petition. The volunteer at the table described the incident: “The MacLean supporter was angry and abrasive. She was telling people not to sign the petition and following them as they walked away from her. Some of those she was trying to dissuade signed the petition right in front of her. At one point, a man told her that he didn’t know either side, but he was signing because she was so rude.”

At a store on May 15, another volunteer described an encounter, “A man asked if it would fix the problem to recall MacLean. He wasn’t just a passerby with a question, he’s MacLean’s appointee to the planning commission. After learning about his connection with MacLean, I asked what MacLean had done on the council to benefit residents. I’m not making this up – he described MacLean’s greatest accomplishments as a city basketball gymnasium and the toll road extension.”

Recall volunteers converse with hundreds of people each week, and they have a strong sense of residents’ views. They say most residents either don’t know MacLean or they have a negative impression of him.
 

Some people at storefronts ask if MacLean is a Democrat or Republican. Upon hearing he’s a Republican, Democrats are not inclined to support him. Republicans are eager to get rid of him when they find out he ran as a fiscal conservative and then gave himself a pay raise and tried to increase taxes.