Joel Engardio recalled: Now anyone can be recalled by everyone

"In 1983, Mayor Dianne Feinstein overwhelmingly beat a recall initiated by zany gun nuts. This came at a time when the gun murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were hardly a distant memory. The terrain favored the incumbent, who wisely made the recall not a valediction on her performance but instead ridiculed the notion of a recall and the fringe recallers."

"That hardly seems coincidental or subtle. Sometimes things really, really aren't coincidental or subtle. Mark it zero, Dude: It's a new political moment in San Francisco. Ask a San Francisco politico when recalls will fade from prominence and the answer is simple: When someone beats one. That wasn't today; if Team Engardio had beaten this one they'd have been talking about it for the rest of time like Joe Namath is still talking about Super Bowl III."

In 1983 Mayor Dianne Feinstein overwhelmingly beat a recall initiated by zany gun nuts after the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The recall terrain favored the incumbent who ridiculed the recall and fringe recallers. Supervisor Joel Engardio rose politically through participating in recall movements, making a recall against him immediately credible and tied to his stance on closing the Great Highway. In November 64 percent of Engardio’s constituents rejected his position; early returns showed 65 percent rejecting Engardio. The successful recall lacked billionaire patronage and demonstrated that recalls can succeed without wealthy backers.

Read at Mission Local