An effort to recall embattled Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León won’t move forward, with the campaign’s lead organizer confirming Monday, April 3, that her group failed to collect enough voter signatures to place a recall question on the ballot.
For the question to make it on the ballot, organizers of the recall effort had to submit by last Friday at least 20,437 valid voter signatures from residents in City Council District 14 that de León represents, according to the L.A. City Clerk’s office.
The group fell about 10,000 signatures short, collecting just over 10,300 signatures, according to Pauline Adkins, who has tried four times to recall the councilmember. Adkins said Monday she won’t launch any further recall efforts against de León, whose term is up in December 2024.
This latest recall bid was in response to a scandal that erupted last October, when a year-old secret recording surfaced in which de León, along with then-Councilmembers Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, and a powerful labor leader, were caught discussing how the city’s redistricting process – which determines how council district boundaries are drawn – might be manipulated to benefit their interests. The conversation was laced with racist comments that further angered many Angelenos.
De León was censured by the L.A. City Council and stripped of many committee assignments, President Joe Biden in October urged those involved to step down, and members of the public held highly disruptive protests at council meetings, demanding his resignation. De León has resisted pressure to leave office.
Neither de León nor his spokesperson responded immediately on Monday to a request seeking comment.
In January, de León’s spokesperson, Pete Brown, said in an email that the councilmember “stands by his decades-long legislative record of always protecting and empowering marginalized communities,” in response to harsh words that some of de León’s critics had made at a…
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