Recall Gascón Campaign Denies Negligence Allegations After Recall Failure

The team behind the effort to recall Left-wing Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón tells The Daily Wire that any allegations of negligence and illegal activity in the campaign were false. 

Last week, a report emerged that willful negligence and illegal activity were key reasons why the rejection of the petition to recall Gascón failed. The measure will not be on the November ballot after not enough signatures were validated by the county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to qualify. 

Recall Gascón campaign spokesperson Tim Lineberger responded to the allegations, telling The Daily Wire that the report was “riddled with demonstrably false assertions and contradicts itself repeatedly.”

He also said that the campaign needed to get over 566,000 signatures in 160 days, which he called “an unprecedented effort that far exceeds any comparable threshold.”

L.A. County law stipulates that 10% of all registered county voters are needed for a recall petition. For comparison, the attempt to recall Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) needed about 12% of voters from the prior gubernatorial election while the successful effort to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin needed about 51,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

The report that the recall campaign is disputing cited an inside source, who alleged ineligible signatures were intentionally used to pad signature count updates. The report also alleged that campaign employees were told to forge the signatures of circulators if necessary and that consultants involved were motivated more by financial gain than by the success of the recall.

Lineberger said that any allegations of illegality were “bulls***.” He also told The Daily Wire that the recall campaign plans on reviewing the final count and making sure that no one who signed the petition was disenfranchised. 

“While we still intend to review the final count and ensure no voter was disenfranchised, assuming the results do not change, all facts, finance reports, and publicly available information demonstrate the campaign was extremely diligent throughout the process and did everything possible to make this happen, often times to our own personal financial, physical, and emotional detriment,” he said. 

Another analysis of why the effort failed has looked at disputes between the group Let the Voters Decide and the recall campaign. Let the Voters Decide was a group paid to collect signatures for the campaign. It claims that the campaign was handled poorly and is suing over campaign-related charges. 

Despite the feuds over the handling of the campaign, L.A. County voters will be able to decide Gascón’s political future when he is back on the ballot in November 2023.

“People can say whatever they want, it will not stop us from continuing to do everything we can to remove Gascón from office, whether that’s now or in 2024. Thanks in part to the recall effort, Gascón is a wounded animal and his time is running out,” Lineberger said.