Finger-pointing erupts among backers of George Gascón recall

A Florida-based company that was paid millions of dollars to collect signatures for the campaign to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón this week blamed organizers for their failure to qualify an election, insisting “they have no one to blame but themselves for this disaster.”

David Leibowitz, a spokesman for Let The Voters Decide, claimed the recall committee failed to heed the advice of petition circulation experts, ultimately tanking the recall effort.

“This could not have been handled more like amateur hour,” Leibowitz said. “These consultants made poor decisions and ignored solid advice at every turn. You name it, they did it, from collecting signatures on the cheap to failing to pay their bills, to expensive direct mail that failed, to having zero clue how to verify signatures for submission. They have no one to blame but themselves for this disaster.”

Let The Voters Decide, which is suing the recall campaign over nearly $500,000 in unpaid bills for signature gathering, also alleges consultants for the recall committee paid themselves more than $400,000 in the first half of 2022 for the “chaotic event.”

“When the history of this campaign is written, it will be a failure nearly as shocking as George Gascón’s massive failure to enforce the law and protect the good people of Los Angeles,” Leibowitz said. “This should never have happened.”

Herculean task

Experts, however, cited the herculean task of collecting 566,857 valid signatures to qualify the recall election for the ballot. Though organizers turned in petitions containing 717,000 signatures, county elections officials this week said they fell 47,000 short of the  number required. Signatures from unregistered voters were the main culprit.

By comparison, the successful recall campaign that ousted progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in June needed just 51,325 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The sheer size of Los Angeles County, which has a population larger than that of 40 states, makes the logistics of a successful recall effort difficult, said veteran Los Angeles political consultant Matt Klink, who turned down a request to spearhead an earlier, aborted Gascón recall campaign because it was a partisan, grassroots effort.

“It’s easy until you have to do it,” Klink said. “As unpopular as Mr.Gascón is, the bar is still high and it should be difficult.”

Finding signature collectors skilled at persuading voters to endorse ballot measures — even when they involve polarizing figures like Gascón — is challenging and costly.

Millions spent on petitions

Campaign finance records show the Gascón recall committee spent about $4.8 million — of which $4.3 million went to Let The Voters Decide — to circulate the recall petitions. That equates to $9.22 for each valid signature. In 2021, the average cost per required signature on referendums nationwide was $14.74, according to Ballotpedia.

“People have other things on their minds, so you have to make it (the initiative) rise to the top,” Klink said. “Most voters may believe it’s not that important, so you have to have people go in and make it important.”

That the campaign flopped is not that surprising, he said, “because most recall efforts fail, either to get enough signatures (for a referendum) or lose at the ballot box. You are under intense pressure in a recall. They were probably rushed and didn’t properly check everything.”

The Los Angeles County registrar-recorder/county clerk reported that the disqualified signatures on the Gascón petitions included 88,464 from unregistered voters, 43,593 duplicates and 32,187 from individuals who provided a different address than that listed on voter registration records.

Organizers of the recall effort launched their campaign in late January after the county approved their petition, giving them about 160 work days to meet the signature requirement.

“No one ever has collected this many signatures over such a short period of time on a per capita basis,” said Tim Lineberger, a spokesman for the Recall District Attorney George Gascón campaign. “It’s unprecedented.”

Lineberger believes Los Angeles County voters grasped the importance and urgency of removing Gascón from office, but said qualifying the recall for the ballot was still a heavy lift.

“The message resonates significantly, but getting people to fill out petitions perfectly as required and return them is challenging,” he said.

Several challenges

Aaron Green, a political consultant who wasn’t involved in the campaign but has managed successful ballot measures in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, said the Gascón recall effort likely faced several hurdles.

“The recall campaign ran into challenges on several fronts, including a tight labor market for paid signature gatherers (and) an overall sense of political exasperation amongst voters who were being asked to sign yet another petition in front of their grocery store,” he said in an email.

The lawsuit filed by Let the Voters Decide alleges the recall committee “lowered the price they were willing to pay signature collectors during a time” when the market demanded an increase, according to City News Service. The committee’s “failed strategic decisions” caused the signature collecting to fall behind schedule, Let the Voters Decide alleged.

Lineberger described the lawsuit as frivolous but declined to elaborate. He is satisfied with the financial support the Gascón recall effort has received and how the campaign money has been spent.

“The outpouring of support from both sides of the political aisle is yet another indication of how badly people want Gascón gone,” he said. “His dangerous policies and social experiments are putting everyone at risk. It’s not a partisan issue.”

Bipartisan donations

Despite being described as a movement by “fringe conservatives,” financial records for the recall effort showed Democrats contributed roughly $1.3 million in the attempt to topple Gascón. Republicans still make up the majority of the contributions, however, according to to an analysis by the Southern California News Group, which looked at each donor’s history of political contributions to determine their likely political allegiance.

Of the $7.6 million reviewed, $4.1 million came from individuals or companies who typically donated to conservative candidates, the data showed. The nearly $1.3 million contributed by Democrats includes well-known fundraisers, companies and left-leaning committees.

Political committees tied to law enforcement agencies contributed about $1.1 million of the total haul, while the remaining $1 million came from sources who had either donated evenly to Republicans and Democrats, or who did not have clear political affiliations.

Two Republican megadonors and real estate moguls, Geoffrey Palmer of Beverly Hills and Gerald Marcil of Palos Verdes Estates, covered about a third of the campaign’s funding on their own. As the two highest contributors, Palmer and Marcil donated $1.6 million and $1 million, respectively.

The third highest contributor, Douglas Emmett Properties, is a real estate investment company run by Chief Executive Officer Jordan Kaplan, who has donated to various Democratic parties across the country in the last two years.

Douglas Emmett not only contributed $500,000 directly to the Gascón recall effort, but the company waived $211,000 as the campaign’s landlord, according to the campaign filings. Other prominent Democrat donations included $150,000 from Hudson Pacific Services, led by Victor Coleman, who previously made sizable donations to the DNC and Gov. Gavin Newsom; and $100,000 from prominent Democrat fundraiser Ron Burkle.

Kaplan and Douglas Emmett Management did not respond to requests for comment.

Political action committees tied to the Professional Peace Officers Association, Association of L.A. Deputy Sheriffs and the Los Angeles Police Protective League gave $500,000, $300,000 and $200,000, respectively.

The bipartisan support for recalling Gascón has less to do with party politics and more to do with how his performance is perceived, Green said.

“Historically, with incumbent district attorneys, voters first ask themselves if they think the district attorney is doing a good job and keeping their families safe, and party affiliation comes second,” he added. “It’s clear that there is a constituency of Democratic voters who don’t like the job District Attorney Gascón is doing.”

Elise Moore, a spokesperson for Gascón, said Californians don’t like recall elections, adding that the campaign to oust the district attorney was likely harmed by an endorsement from controversial Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

“But at the end of the day, the district attorney’s biggest and most important supporters stood by him and that means a lot to voters,” Moore said.

The fight may not be over yet. Officials with the recall effort are considering a possible legal challenge to the petition signature results, according to the committee’s spokesman.

“We are concerned about any voters who are registered and having their signatures not counted,” Lineberger said.