Although the recall effort against Governor Rick Snyder started collecting signatures on May 21, it wasn't until the new teacher tenure law was signed by the governor that it really got kicked into high gear. Now we are approaching the final week to collect over 800,000 signatures to get the issue on the November ballot.
As a teacher and an MEA member, I have been actively involved in the recall effort. Just last Thursday the language to recall House Representative Paul Scott from District 51 was approved. The language was approved in the morning, and petitioners were out that very afternoon collecting signatures. I joined them the following day and have worked several days on this petition drive. We have only two weeks to collect over 8,000 signatures for Rep. Scott. What interesting is that the recall for Paul Scott is also bringing us signers for the recall of Governor Snyder. We also have petitions to repeal Public Act 4 which is the Emergency Manager law (they removed the 'financial' part of the title).
We really don't know how close we are to our goal for the state to collect over 800,000 signatures. On Monday, the Detroit News reported that the recall campaign had fired its spokesperson and admitted that it might not get the needed signatures. What is interesting is that today I spoke with a representative from the recall campaign and he said it is going "very well." He said that the story from Monday was not verified with the recall campaign and that he had been "putting out that fire all week." This was very encouraging news indeed!
We won't know until September 10 if we were successful in getting the required signatures. We will collect signatures until Aug. 5 and then they will need to be verified.
This has been a great experience for me! I have really been encouraged by all the support. As I stand on the side of the road, holding a sign, people honk or wave. Of course, some people want to curse at us or shake their heads, but we get more of those who are in support than those who hate what we are doing.
I am taking a short break from the recall effort to travel to Washington D.C. this weekend and participate in the Save Our Schools march, but I will be back at it next week for the final push.