Recall bid gets first signature

A group that's trying to recall Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle plans to spend the next month collecting signatures at restaurants, at the polls and anywhere else they can find supporters.

The clock started ticking at 9:30 a.m. Thursday on the group's effort to oust Suttle from office.

That's when the Mayor Suttle Recall Committee picked up recall petitions against Suttle. Jeremy Aspen, the group's spokesman and co-chairman, was the first person to sign the petition. "The first signature is done," Aspen said.

Suttle said he plans to keep doing his job.

“As I have said before, I remain focused on finding real solutions to Omaha's short term and long term challenges. Many people who oppose this recall effort have been approaching me and I appreciate their encouragement," the mayor said in a written statement.

The group will have 30 days, until Nov. 19, to collect the 26,643 signatures of registered Omaha voters required to force a recall election.

Organizers say, however, that they plan to gather far more than that.

“We're going to go for overkill,” said Tom Jizba, campaign manager for the recall effort. “We won't stop.”

For his part, Suttle is gearing up for the fight. He's called the recall attempt reckless and a waste of city taxpayer money. Two local organizations also are launching anti-recall campaigns.

The Suttle Recall Committee is pinning much of its strategy on the Nov. 2 general election, where volunteer petition workers will try to snag signatures from Omahans as they enter or leave their polling places.

But the Douglas County election commissioner said projections for low voter turnout, combined with a state law that dictates how close petition circulators can be to a polling location, could hamper their efforts.

Volunteers also plan to be in about 25 Omaha restaurants and bars — many whose owners are angry at Suttle for the city's new 2.5 percent restaurant tax — to gather signatures from diners and drinkers.

Denis Hall, owner of two Fernando's restaurants in Omaha and one in Blair, said he's seen his business at his Omaha locations drop by 10 to 12 percent since the restaurant tax took effect Oct. 1. That's why he's allowing petition workers to stand in the entryway of his Omaha restaurants.

“I feel that we have the right,” he said, “to have our views be known.”

Hall said, however, that his employees won't be asking for signatures. “If customers want to sign, the opportunity is there,” he said.

Organizers also will turn up at public events, such as outside Rosenblatt Stadium for next Thursday's Omaha Nighthawks game.

Last month, the group filed a recall affidavit against Suttle, citing “excessive taxes, broken promises and union deals that cost taxpayers millions” as reasons for the effort.

Jizba said about 100 petition volunteers have attended six training sessions so far. About 15 to 17 people attended each meeting.

In late September, the recall committee said it had raised $35,000. But Jizba said Wednesday that much of that money has been spent to pay for commercials on a half-dozen talk radio, country and light rock stations.

“We still need to raise more money,” Jizba said.

Suttle also is raising money to fight the recall.

Earlier this month, the mayor launched an anti-recall campaign via his mayoral campaign website, which is not an official city website. Suttle's campaign is soliciting contributions from people who oppose the recall.

He also has supporters rallying against the recall effort. They include Omaha philanthropist and businessman Dick Holland and his group, the Committee to Keep Omaha Moving Forward, and another organization, Forward Omaha.

Noelle Obermeyer, co-treasurer for Forward Omaha, said Wednesday that the recall effort doesn't reflect the opinions of most Omaha taxpayers.

Suttle is a member of the group, she said, and has said he'll contribute. Besides opposing the recall, the group plans to be active on other city issues.

Forward Omaha has registered with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission and has raised at least $5,000, Obermeyer said. The group launched an anti-recall website Wednesday.

“This recall is not going to fix any of Omaha's problems,” Obermeyer said.

Recall efforts are hardly a sure thing. Recent attempts to remove mayors, including former Mayor Mike Fahey, have fallen short.

Dave Phipps, the county's election commissioner, said Wednesday that the anti-Suttle camp will need to collect between 30,000 and 35,000 signatures to be sure that there are enough valid signatures. Some signatures will have to be thrown out, he said, either because the signer isn't a registered voter or doesn't live in Omaha.

Phipps also said that petition workers will operate under some restrictions on Election Day. Under state law, they must stand at least 200 feet away from the entrance to a polling location. That same rule applies to campaign signs and campaign workers.

At some polling locations, that could put petition workers on the far end of parking lots or across the street, Phipps said.

An Election Day signature-gathering effort helped force a recall election for former Mayor Mike Boyle, who was removed from office in 1987.

But Phipps said that, in the Boyle effort, petition circulators s stood right outside the polling place and approached voters on their way in and out.

Phipps also said he's expecting a relatively low voter turnout — from 40 to 45 percent — on Nov. 2, primarily because it's a midterm election with no U.S. Senate race on the ballot. If the weather is poor, he said, turnout could be even worse.

However, Neal Erickson, deputy secretary of state for elections, said the group may have made a wise choice by choosing volunteer petition workers over paid circulators. Volunteers tend to gather more valid signatures because they are passionate about the issue at hand, he said.

“Volunteers tend to be more chatty,” he said. “A well-trained volunteer has a higher success rate than a well-trained paid petitioner.”

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