Recall in El Paso

Robert Knight:

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue spoke for many politicians on Tuesday when she suggested suspending congressional elections for two years to give the politicians a free hand without voter input.

“You want people who don’t worry about the next election,” Mrs. Perdue, a Democrat elected in 2008, said to a Rotary Club gathering. Although a tape of the speech reveals that she made the statement in a serious manner, she later insisted she had been joking.

But the insularity of elected officials is no joke, and Americans who are looking for ways to increase accountability are turning to the right of recall.

Arrogant politicians take note: There is more to fear than scheduled elections.

Exhibit A is the campaign under way right now in El Paso, Texas.

Mayor John Cook and two City Council members will be on a May 2012 recall election ballot, courtesy of petition collectors from a pro-family group outraged over the reversal of a referendum limiting city-employee marital benefits to married couples and their families.

On Nov. 2, El Paso voters approved 55 percent to 45 percent a measure that said, “The city of El Paso endorses traditional family values by making health benefits available only to city employees and their legal spouse and dependent children.”

In January, a U.S. district judge suspended enforcement of the law pending a court challenge. In June, the City Council deadlocked on a measure to restore the benefits, and Mr. Cook broke the 4-4 tie, restoring benefits to homosexual couples and unmarried male-female couples.

Shortly thereafter, a group called El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values began a recall petition against Mr. Cook and two of the council members who had voted in favor of the measure. Two others had finished their terms and so were not recall targets. On Sept. 22, the city clerk verified the signatures for all three recall elections in May in the border city of 650,000.

San Antonio, a city of 1.3 million, whose City Council voted on Sept. 15 to grant marital benefits to unmarried partners after hours of testimony by people opposing it, may be the next major Texas city to see a recall campaign. Tom Brown, pastor of the Word of Life Church, who spearheaded the El Paso recall petitions, explains why they resonated with voters: “We’re sending the message: ‘Don’t mess with our vote,’ ” he said in a telephone interview. “This council was arrogant and overturned a legal vote on the domestic benefits ordinance. We don’t want tax dollars going to unmarried partners.”

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The lesson here is that it is a mistake to take the Hispanic vote for granted on social issues.  El Paso is so Hispanic that voting is like ethnic cleansing if the race is between an Anglo and Hispanic.  San Antonio is a little more diverse, but both communities oppose same sex benefits and I suspect they oppose the lifting of don't ask, don't tell.  This could be a problem for Obama in 2012.