Port Commissioner Recall: What will it Take?
April 26, 2007
Posted on Washblog by Noemie Maxwell

When the SLOG reported on Tuesday that Chris Clifford has filed a petition to recall Pat Davis from her position on the Port of Seattle -- I didn't know quite what that meant. What kind of a petition?  What was the likelihood of its success?  Who's Chris Clifford?

I gave Clifford a call.  The petition, he explained, is filed under  RCW 29A.56.110+. This is the same law under which Spokane's Mayor was recently recalled.  First, there will be a hearing on the petition in Superior Court to determine if the charges satisfy the legal criteria for a recall.  If the court doesn't rule his way, Clifford said, he plans to take it to the Supreme Court.  Once the petition is certified, the campaign has a maximum of 180 days to collect the signatures.  They must gather a number of signatures equal to at least thirty-five percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for that office in the preceeding election.

Thirty-five percent of the total votes cast for Jack Jolley and Pat Davis in the 2005 election is 148,679.  Significantly more signatures than that would be needed to account for error, people who say they're registered voters but are not, for example.

Last year's Clean Energy initiative needed something like 225,000 signatures to qualify, and collected about 330,000.  They did this as part of a $2 million campaign.  I remember how much work it took me to get my little-old 200 signatures -- several afternoons standing on street corners at festivals and in front of supermarkets. Thousands of volunteers took part in that effort, as well as a number of paid signature gatherers and camapaign organizers.  Of course there were, if I remember correctly, only about 6 weeks in which to collect the signatures -- and recall efforts have nearly 6 months.

I asked Clifford -- are you going into this with the idea that, 'well, maybe the recall won't work out -- but at least we'll be bringing public attention to Pat Davis' misbehavior?'  Or are you approaching it more with an attitude: 'we can do this and we will?'  Definitely, the second, he said.  "I don't joke around on stuff like this.  I believe she's simply unfit."

I found Clifford to be knowledgeable and engaging, though we differed politically in spots, and we spoke for awhile.  After our conversation, I found a 1993 Seattle Times article that describes him  as a moderate Republican, environmental activist, NRA member, small business owner, and ex-semiprofessional football player. He's now a civics teacher at Tahoma High School. Here's a 3/7/07 Tacoma News Tribune article describing a few moments in his advanced placement government and politics class.  The SLOG article described you as a long-time activist, I said.  What else have you done?  He laughed.  SLOG made me sound old with that line, he said.  But he mentioned several battles.

In 1992, he filed a case before the Shoreline Hearings Board against the City of Renton, Boeing, and the Washington Department of Ecology which shut down, for two months, a $70 million Boeing construction project in Longacres.  It also resulted, he said, in some additional environmental protections.  Because of that case, he said, "People won't be so willing to violate the Shoreline Management Act.  It cost Boeing to do it."  In 1997, he brought a successful ethics complaint against Republican King County Councilmember Jane Hague for her unreported political fundraising of 29,000 -- much of it from lobbyists and businesses with issues before the council.  Hague spent $100,000 to defend herself in this case, which was reimbursed by the county, even though she lost.  In 2001, Clifford brought a successful case against the City of Seattle under the Open Public Meetings Act.  And more recently, he led the ballot title challenge for the Valley Hospital annexation.

Maybe Chris Clifford really can pull together the organization and resources to get the required signatures.  I told him I'd collect some for him.  He sounds as disgusted as I feel: "She's pulled this crap before.  In WTO she put the Port in a difficult position in the payment of the costs of security.  She's an elected official.  She knows she has no right to sign into any agreement committing funds of the Port or any public entity prior to a vote of the Port."