The recent recall effort targeting Las Cruces City Councilors Gill Sorg, Nathan Small, and Olga Pedroza is now facing allegations by some citizens who say that they have been victims of misleading attempts to get them to sign the recall petition form.
Susan Lindeman resides in Las Cruces. One weekend day she was relaxing with a book when she says a pleasant young man approached her door to speak with her.
“He asked me if I had some time to discuss with him some injustices that were happening in our district, and I said sure. Social justice has always been an issue to me living in Central and South America, so of course I'll talk about that.”
Lindeman says the man informed her of possible closings of local youth social centers.
“He said the government wanted to close down some very worth while social centers, and then proceeded to tell me which ones and what they were doing and why they were worthwhile to keep them open.”
Lindeman says she opened her door, and took the clipboard to start to sign the petition when she noticed that it was not a petition to keep open social centers, but something else…A Recall Petition for her district’s city councilor.
“And so I started to read it, and he continued to talk and I said stop, I need to read this. I’m not the kind of person that signs without reading what it says. And, it said something about… The petition wants to initiate a recall of our elected Councilman Gill Sorg," says Lindeman.
Lindeman didn’t sign the petition and turned away the man, and later emailed local law enforcement, and the Las Cruces City Clerk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqqLEnz61Y&feature=youtu.be
Anita Allen, also a Las Cruces resident says she had a similar experience with a recall petitioner.
“A young woman came to the door, and she said she had a petition that she wanted me to sign, and I asked her what it was, and she said that they were planning on doing away with the boxing center.”
Allen says that the woman continued to tell her how important the center was to youth in the area.
“I said may I see the petition, and she showed it to me and it clearly said that it was a recall petition for my council member Olga Pedroza. So, I said that this is not what it is; it’s a recall petition. Why did you say it was the other thing? She (Petitioner) said, that’s what they are planning on doing. And I said you’re lying…. you’re trying to deceive me and I don’t appreciate it, and take your petition and go elsewhere.”
Allen also sent a complaint to the City Clerk on the encounter.
KRWG has requested an interview with the Political Action Committee organizing the recall effort…New Mexicans For A Better Tomorrow….and we’re waiting for a response.
In a recent Las Cruces Sun-News article regarding similar allegations of misleading efforts by recall petitioners, the group’s spokesperson Jeffrey Isbell is quoted as saying:
"The people who work closely with us and are on our staff are on message," he said. "If they did something like that and we found out about it, they would not be on our staff."
A spokesperson for the City of Las Cruces says that the Clerk's office has received a “handful” of concerns by phone, email, and in person, and that if anyone feels they were misled into signing the recall petition they can write a letter to the City Clerk’s Office asking to be purged from the recall list.
The spokesperson adds, in the letter residents must include their name and address as signed on the petition, explain what happened, request to be purged from the petition, and identify the circulator by name if possible.
