Recall Elections

Amid a burgeoning controversy over college Trustee Steven J. Frogue earlier this year, one of his ardent supporters stood during a meeting recess and loudly voiced a prediction even more chilling than the frosty air outside. "We're headed for a bloody race war in this country," said the supporter, a friend of people with ties to white supremacists, "and I can't wait."

Leaders of an effort to oust Steven J. Frogue from his college board seat said they will file petitions today to force a recall election, while the embattled trustee charged that the broad coalition arrayed against him is engaged in a campaign of "lies, smears and demagoguery." A recall committee official said Monday that more than 50,000 signatures will be filed before today's 5 p.m. deadline for returning recall petitions.

Organizers of a recall effort against Councilman Ricardo Sanchez have begun collecting signatures, alleging that Sanchez has abused his position during his 11-month tenure on the council. Supporters of the recall campaign allege in the petitions that Sanchez strong-armed merchants for money, had city workers put in a concrete drive at his home and excessively used the city's credit card.

The Orange County Republican Party and the Democratic Foundation of Orange County hope to raise $40,000 this month to help recall South County college district Trustee Steven J. Frogue. The money will come from a bipartisan fund-raiser Sept. 19 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, said county GOP Chairman Michael Schroeder. Guests will be charged $100 each. Frogue, accused of making anti-Semitic and racist remarks, has been the target of a recall attempt for more than a year.

Embarrassed by controversy rippling monthly from the South Orange County Community College District's Board of Trustees, state Republicans on Wednesday said they will support the recall of Trustee Steven J. Frogue, himself a Republican and two-term trustee at odds with students, professors and Jewish groups.

The Orange County Democratic Party this week supported the recall of Steven Frogue as a trustee on the South Orange County Community College District board, saying it must "stand up against bigotry and anti-Semitism." Though Frogue has repeatedly denied he is anti-Semitic, Jeanne Costales, Democratic Party chair, said the party's Central Committee has unanimously backed the recall of the embattled trustee. A recall petition this year failed to get enough signatures, but another has been started.

The effort to recall Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez has floundered for many reasons, but they do not include what he would most like to hear--some expression of his voting constituents' desire to have him stay. Months after Hernandez's no-contest plea to a drug-possession charge and enrollment in a court-supervised rehabilitation program, the voters he represents still have not been asked what they want.

In no state is the specter of a recall election used more effectively or more frequently than in California, where not even judges are immune. And nowhere is that illustrated more dramatically than in Orange County, where a jurist celebrated by her peers for being not only competent but also respected and fair is being assailed for her controversial ruling in the O.J. Simpson child custody case.

No state uses the specter of a recall election more effectively or more frequently than California, where not even judges are immune. And nowhere is that illustrated more dramatically than Orange County, where a jurist celebrated by her peers for being not only competent but also respected and fair is being assailed for her controversial ruling in the O.J. Simpson child custody case.

For the second time this year, the Orange County Superior Court judge who gave O.J. Simpson full custody of his two youngest children was handed a notice of intent to recall Monday morning in her Fullerton courtroom. When Judge Nancy Wieben Stock was first served a notice in February, the Women's Progress Alliance--the group spearheading the effort--overlooked a requirement: that the elected official be in office for at least 90 days prior to the start of the recall process.