The campaign to oust community college trustee Steven J. Frogue has failed for lack of valid signatures on the recall petitions, county election officials said Thursday.
"I'm disappointed but I'm not shocked," said Peggy Thomas, director of the committee formed last year to recall Frogue, a trustee with the South Orange County Community College District. "If the worst thing to come out of this is that we've raised awareness of Mr. Frogue and his dealings, then we've been very successful."
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Frogue lashed out at his critics, accusing them of orchestrating a "vicious, bitter smear campaign . . . fraught with lies, slander and outright hate." The two-term board member, whose current term expires in 2000, reiterated that he will not resign his post.
Frogue angered students, faculty and Jewish groups last year when, as college board president, he advocated holding a seminar on the John F. Kennedy assassination that would have featured speakers who have been characterized as anti-Semitic. Controversy over the seminar proposal was part of the reason for the recall effort.
Frogue, who teaches history at Foothill High School in Tustin, was also accused of minimizing the Holocaust. He has repeatedly denied the allegations and has said the recall was orchestrated by a small group of professors unhappy with recent staffing changes mandated by the board at the college district's two campuses, Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and Irvine Valley College.
Recall leaders last month turned in petitions with about 50,000 signatures, more than the 37,947 needed to force a special election. But county election officials said Thursday that they could validate only 32,322 of those names.
Rosalyn Lever, county registrar of voters, said many signatures on the petitions were duplicates, and others did not belong to registered voters. Though it is common to find invalid signatures on petitions, she said, the rejection rate was somewhat higher than usual in this case. A common rule of thumb is to gather 30% more signatures than are needed, she said.
"Generally if people go through the trouble of circulating a petition for a recall, they make sure they have enough signatures," she said.
The effort to recall Frogue had drawn widespread bipartisan support and was endorsed by the state Republican Party as well as the Orange County Democratic Party.
