Mayor Vincent Gray‘s second year in office is expected to start Tuesday by facing a grass-roots effort to recall him from office after a year marked by a hiring scandal, heightened scrutiny and the start of a grand jury probe into his mayoral campaign.
But critics and supporters alike say any legitimate effort would costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, would have to be run like a high-profile political campaign and even then, the chances of success are slim.
D.C. resident Frederick Butler, founder of www.recallvincegray.com, said he has been gathering email addresses of potential volunteers and donors for such an effort. He told The Washington Examiner that he’s “ready to go” Tuesday — the first day he can file for a recall under D.C. law.
“As soon as the doors open, I’m going to be there and I’m going to file,” he said, referring to the Board of Elections and Ethics.
The investigation into Gray’s 2010 mayoral campaign has been a distraction for nearly the entire first year of his administration.
| How to recall a D.C. mayor |
| 1. File notice of intent to recall and get petition language approved. |
| 2. Collect at least 45,314 signatures of registered voters within 180 days. |
| 3. Wait 30 days for elections board to validate signatures. |
| 4. If enough signatures are validated, the elections board will schedule a special election between 54 and 114 days from certification date, or the election will coincide with a previously scheduled primary or general election. |
Six weeks after he moved into the mayor’s office, it was revealed that Gray’s team hired allies and family members of staffers for city jobs, including minor mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown. After being fired in February from his $110,000-a-year job, Brown said members of Gray’s mayoral campaign gave him cash-stuffed envelopes and money orders so he would stay in the race and keep up his verbal assault on then-Mayor Adrian Fenty.
In March, a House committee began investigating Brown’s accusations the same day Gray fired his chief of staff, Gerri Mason Hall, who was largely blamed for the questionable hiring practices.
A federal grand jury was empaneled in April to investigate Gray’s campaign spending, including whether Gray for Mayor funds were used to keep Brown in the race. The Examiner first reported the federal investigation in the summer.
Butler around then started his recall effort. He said his mailing list has more than 240 names and he has the city mapped out.
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“We’re going to hold their feet to the fire,” he said.
City law does not allow a recall effort during an official’s first or last year in office.
But the sheer level of support required for a recall election has some doubtful that Butler’s efforts will succeed. D.C. law requires that a recall petition obtain valid signatures from 10 percent of the city’s registered voters — or about 45,000. The petition also must include at least 10 percent of voters from five of the eight wards to demonstrate a citywide sentiment.
The elections board must validate the signatures, and experts said the signatures were sure to be legally challenged.
Chuck Thies, a political consultant who has advised Gray, said Butler would need upward of $250,000 to fund a serious recall attempt.
Dorothy Brizill, co-founder of DC Watch and a Gray critic, noted Butler was connected to Sinclair Skinner, a fraternity brother of Fenty who was at the center of a contracting scandal in 2010. But she said she doubted that even Fenty supporters would have the will to fund a full-scale effort.
“I don’t see Butler having it,” she said. “We’re talking a small group of political activists here.”
Butler said he “has several people lined up” to help fund his effort, although he declined to say who.
Fenty did not respond to requests for comment.
