OC Political

On Tuesday, the Fullerton City Council voted to consolidate the recall elections with the June 5 Primary.  Fullerton voters will decide whether or not to recall Republican City Councilmen Don Bankhead, Dick Jones, and Pat McKinley.

Fullerton’s voters will also vote on replacements for each councilman should one, two, or all three of the recalls succeed.  (Remember, the recalls are not an all-or-nothing proposition.  The recalls of Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley are technically three separate elections, so it is possible that rather than all three surviving or all three being recalled, one could survive with two recalled or two could survive with the other recalled.)  Most people do expect an all-or-nothing result since the recalls seek to remove the three for the same reason, but that doesn’t necessarily have to happen.

In November, the other two councilmembers, Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva and Republican Bruce Whitaker, are up for election.  If his recall fails, Jones is up for election in November.  If his recall succeeds, Jones’s replacement is up for election in November.

If their respective recalls fail, Bankhead and McKinley are each up for re-election in 2014; if their respective recalls succeed, their respective replacements are each up for re-election in 2014.

Now, here’s a look at the Fullerton Council candidates (thus far) in the recall replacement elections…

Wednesday, February 22 was the first day Fullertonians could pull papers to run in the recall replacement elections.  On that day, two candidates pulled papers:

• Jane Rands: The Chair of the Fullerton Bicycle Users Subcommittee and Treasurer of the Green Party of Orange County, Rands pulled papers for all three seats.  She ran for the State Assembly in 2010.
• Roberta Reid: Registered as No Party Preference (Decline-to-State in the pre-Prop 14 parlance), Reid pulled papers for all three seats (but filed for Jones’s seat the following day).

On Thursday, February 23, two more candidates pulled papers to run:

• Travis Kiger: A Republican Fullerton Planning Commissioner and blogger at Friends for Fullerton’s Future, Kiger pulled papers for Jones’s seat.
• Greg Sebourn: The Chair of the Fullerton Citizen’s Infrastructure Review Commission and Assemblyman Chris Norby’s Alternate on the Republican Central Committee, Sebourn pulled papers for all three seats.  He ran for the City Council in 2010.

On Friday, February 24, one candidate pulled papers:

• Glenn Georgieff: A Democrat and former Fullerton Library Trustee, Georgieff pulled papers for Jones’s seat.

Oddly, the candidate filing log notes, “In addition, one person has pulled papers for all three seats, but has not yet provided contact information.” (The bolding is in the original log and was not added by me.)  This anonymous candidate will need to reveal himself/herself by the close of filing, of course.

In a nutshell for those keeping track, all six candidates (Rands, Reid, Kiger, Sebourn, Georgieff, and the anonymous candidate) pulled papers for Jones’s seat (and Reid already filed for that seat).  Rands, Reid, Sebourn, and the anonymous candidate also pulled papers for Bankhead and McKinley’s seats (Kiger and Georgieff did not; and of course, Reid has filed for the Jones seat).

To reiterate for those keeping partisan scores of the councilmembers and candidates, Rands is a Green, Reid is a No Party Preference, Georgieff and Quirk-Silva are Democrats, while the rest (Bankhead, Jones, Kiger, McKinley, Sebourn, and Whitaker) are Republicans.  Remember, Councilmembers Quirk-Silva and Whitaker are not recall targets.

Candidate filing for the Fullerton Recall ends on March 9, the same deadline as most other offices on the June Primary ballot.

(As you might note, I’ve played it straight, reporting just the facts on this post, rather than doing any analysis.  In the interest of full disclosure, I should note my day job is working in the Fullerton office of Assemblyman Chris Norby, who served on the Fullerton City Council from 1984-2002.  One of my co-workers in the office is Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker, who was elected in 2010 and is not a target of the recall.)