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October 29, 2009

In Clatsop County, Two Or Three Or Four Votes Either Way …

In Dried Salmon County the issue of LNG is as explosive politically as the fuel itself is, it would seem; the issue of Bradwood Landing triggered two recalls, one for County Commissioner Jeff Hazen, the other for Couny Commissioner Ann Samuelson. And while Hazen survives by a 56-44 per cent margin, things are not so peachy for Samuelson, as the OLCV blog reports, the tally was 1,013 votes for the recall, and 1,009 against:

While OLCV didn't take a position on the recall election that closed Tuesday, it's another example of how close elections can be. Thousands of people voted. But if just two of those people who voted "yes" changed their votes to "no" the recall would fail. Or if just four of the 4142 registered voters who didn't vote showed up to vote "no" the recall would have failed.

And, as it turned out, the margin was exactly as large as it had to be and could be no larger to trigger a recount.

Looks like LNG isn't just explosive, it's poisonous.

That's not all though. Clicking through to The Daily Astorian article on it, we find that Samuelson isn't a stranger to being on the losing end of a recall effort:

If the result is certified, Samuelson will have been recalled twice in two years. She was recalled from the Jewell School District board of directors May 20, 2008. She had been on the board since 2005. Voters removed Samuelson and another member, Karl Meier.

Samuelson and Meier were accused of "misleading the public about the board's intentions to conduct an open and public superintendent search involving the staff and community" and "violating executive session provisions of Oregon's public meetings law" - allegations that emerged after a January school board meeting where the district's directors extended the temporary superintendent's contract by two years.

I don't know if this says anything about anything at all, but I've been watching politics (as a citizen) for a long time now, and I don't know of any other politico on any other level who's been on the losing end of two recalls in two years.

Well, that's one way to get into the political history books, I suppose.

Posted by The Chinuk at October 29, 2009 06:46 PM