I don’t know how seriously to take this. It seems like a big stretch. But I’ll be rooting for them.
Last September, when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson told the world he had switched political parties from Democrat to Republican, it ruffled more than a few feathers in the blue-leaning city. Now, a Dallas activist and former City Council candidate named Davante Peters is circulating a petition to recall the mayor.
Johnson’s party switching isn’t the only factor that inspired the petition. Peters said the mayor’s absence from city meetings over the last few years prompted him to file his petition with the city secretary. According to KERA, Johnson has missed more than 130 hours of City Council meetings since 2019, something that Peters takes seriously.
“There’s obviously something that has his attention more than his role at hand,” Peters said. “That’s kind of what led me to jump on this.” Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the recall effort.
Peters is the owner of a health and wellness business called Tha Alkaline Hour. He’s encouraging people to show up to his Dallas location at 4414 S. Marsalis Ave. to sign his petition.
Recalling an elected official in Dallas is a multistep process. First, a notice of intent to circulate a petition must be filed with the city secretary. That’s what Peters did on Jan. 5. The petition must be signed within 60 days by at least 15% of voters who were eligible to vote in the last election.
After the signatures have been gathered, the petition is sent to the city secretary to be certified within 30 days. When it’s been certified, the petition can be submitted to the City Council, which will then call for a recall election. This election is to take place on the next available election date no later than 60 days after the certification of the petition.
The recall election is held as if the mayor’s position were vacant. The mayor is automatically placed on the ballot unless he resigns or decides not to run. The rest of the candidates must comply with regular requirements for a general election in the city. The person elected must take the oath of office within 10 days after the canvassing of the election or the seat will be declared vacant.
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Peters said the vast majority of people he has approached with his petition have been supportive of it. “I haven’t found anyone so far who is not extremely eager and excited to sign our petition,” Peters said. He said the first day of circulating the petition he got about 100 signatures. He has about 150 signatures now and needs 103,595. The deadline for the signatures is March 5, Dallas City Secretary Bilierae Johnson told the Observer by email.
All due respect, but 100 signatures a day isn’t going to come close to meeting the threshold. The magic number to get to the required total in 60 days is 1,727 sigs per day. It’s clear that Davante Peters isn’t going to approach that number on his own, but a more organized effort, with funding and volunteers and messaging and so on, should be able to. If such a movement springs up around Peters in the next couple of days, then perhaps the Mayor has something to worry about. If not, this is probably the last you’ll hear of it. We’ll see.
UPDATE: The Trib story addresses one of the points I made above:
Kardal Coleman, chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, started an online petition last year calling for the two-term mayor — a former long-time Democrat — to resign. As of Tuesday, it has over 2,300 signatures.
Peters said he felt that the online petition was a “symbolic effort.” His recall petition is the first filed with the city’s secretary against a Dallas City Council member since a failed effort to unseat a council member in 2017.
Johnson’s office did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comment on the petition.
[…]
Peters said he hopes the petition will gain support from Coleman, other Dallas Democrats and community activists.
I agree that the online petition was just a symbolic activity. The Dallas County Democratic Party ought to be in a position to make Peters’ effort a real one, if they are so inclined. They may or may not be – they have a primary to run, and this November takes precedence over everything else – but if they are, then this may go somewhere. The DCDP is not the only entity that could fuel this – honestly, anyone with enough money and a big enough grudge could do it – but they’re a logical starting point.