[Vision2020] recall election

[Bill London]

The editorial from today's Lewiston Tribune (below) summarizes well the problems with Gerry Weitz' recall fantasy.  I do not not think it likely that the petition will get enough signatures (if it even begins circulating).  Pathetic, really. 

BL


J.F. - In Moscow, a tantrum masquerading as a recall


Jim Fisher
Lewiston Tribune, January 2, 2005
Moscow dentist Gerald Weitz is a known firebrand. The question today is whether he is also a saboteur. 

Weitz, who earlier served a stormy tenure on the Moscow School Board, is currently spearheading a campaign to recall three members of the Moscow City Council. And he isn't shy in how he characterizes Linda Pall, John Dickinson and Nancy Chaney. 

A sampling of his fulminations: 

"They are the kings and queens of despair." 

"We will crush them. They don't care about our community or our children." 

"These councilmen are elitists, educating the peasants. People are scared to speak up, but I'm not. This council represents the dark ages, and we need a renaissance." 

What has Weitz so exercised is apparently a conclusion that Pall, Dickinson and Chaney are standing in the way of growth, of business and of education. He objects to the questions they raise about the effects developments will have on the community. He says their denial of a request by the Catholic St. Mary's School to expand in a residential neighborhood represents intolerance and antagonism to education. And although he once expressed support for Pall's former congressional campaign, he accuses her of foisting an unwanted building, the 1912 Center, on the city. 

"No tax revenue was supposed to go into that facility," Weitz says of the former school. "But Linda Pall has shoved it down our throats. We pay millions every year to maintain it and it's still not being used." 

Millions every year? Not being used? What's he talking about? 

Actually, recalls like this are almost always misguided. Dickinson, Chaney and especially the veteran Pall did not present themselves as anything other than what they are when they ran for office. And if voters decide that electing them was a mistake, there is plenty of time to correct that, at the next regular election. 

In the meantime, none of the three has done anything to bring disrepute to the city, or dishonor to themselves. There is no reason to short-circuit the election calendar by recalling them. 

Weitz, however, gives plenty of reasons not to sign his petitions: his own intemperate words. -- J.F. 
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