"Recall Gascon Now" is LEGIT! Now Let's Make Gascon Gas-GONE!

The recall movement against corrupt LA County DA George Gascon has grown so strong, that there are now two groups/PACs fighting to recall this pro-criminal District Attorney:

"Recall George Gascon"

"Recall Gascon Now"

LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is not working with either PAC directly. He just wants Gascon out! LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich (ret.) has attended a few press conferences with the Recall George Gascon PAC, but he has also met with and talked with members of the Recall Gascon Now PAC, too.

Clearly, there is no intended favorite or preferred PAC to work with. At the end of the day, we need to ensure that everyone collects enough signed petitions, gets them sent into their respective headquarters, and we make sure that Gascon becomes Gas-GONE!

However, there has been a rumor that emerged in Northern California on the blog "Right on Daily", which claims that "Recall Gascon Now" is a bad PAC, a fraudulent movement, and/or an incompetent group that has no business collecting signatures.

That is not true.

As someone who has received a great deal of resources to help this petition process, I can attest that the Recall Gascon Now PAC and the movement connected with it is legitimate, well-planned, professional, and properly coordinated. I cannot make it more plain: "Recall Gascon Now" is L-E-G-I-T. I cannot say it any other way!

Why do I say this? Volunteers for "Recall Gascon Now" have answered my calls. They planned a protest outside of George Gascon's home on May 29th, which I attended. I met some of the victims of gang violence at that protest, who came to speak out against Gascon and his ruinous, dangerous, and illegal policies.

These events were put together by volunteers for "Recall Gascon Now". They are doing stuff! They are reaching out to people in the community. In fact, they are working directly with volunteers in the South Bay section of Los Angeles County, where I live. These same volunteers have been dutifully meeting at the corner of Hawthorne and Sepulveda Blvds. in Torrance, CA every Saturday from 10am to 3pm. I was there. I collected signatures with those volunteers, and those same volunteers are transferring petitions to "Recall Gascon Now" leaders. It's all legit, it's all good, and it's working out very well!

So, what is going on? Why are there two different PACs to take out Gascon?

It all comes down to differences of strategy and outreach, nothing more. These kinds of disagreements can happen. People want to achieve the same goals, but if one person will not let others help, or let others lead, then potential volunteers can get frustrated. That is precisely what happened with the "Recall George Gascon" PAC, and volunteers decided to start "Recall Gascon Now".

I spoke with David Hernandez, Chairman of the Los Angeles Hispanic Republican Club. He also knows what is going on in LA City politics in connection with many political movements, Democratic and Republican. He told me that the two groups split because of differences over strategy and outreach. Frankly, I don't see why anyone should care beyond that. He doesn't care, either, and in fact he is not even working on the Recall Gascon movement in the first place!

So, where did this rumor come from, that "Recall Gascon Now" is no good?

It's all in a blogpost from an "intrepid blogger" (who is a friend of mine and helped my campaign for State Assembly by posting a great blog post in my favor–see here).

He wrote the following:

Why are they
telling people to send petitions to the wrong address?

The address
that I blacked out goes to Gary Crummitt – an LA based political treasurer who
was not aware his address is on this email until he got called by some
interested parties.

All of this is nonsense. The address which "Recall Gascon Now" is sending out is fully correct and legitimate. Mr. Crummitt is a well-established professional treasurer located in the city of Long Beach. His office and the building where his office is located are secure yet also easy to travel to.

And I have the receipts that he is the accountant for the Recall Gascon Now PAC. Here's one email that he sent out to one of the volunteer staffers:

Crummitt knows what is going on. There are no surprises, no problems, no confusion.

Crummitt is taking in money to help with this recall effort, and he is tallying petitions that he is receiving from the public. The names of the people who have donated will be a matter of public record shortly, so there is no betrayal of privacy or trust in sharing this information with the general public.

The "intrepid blogger" then adds:

Karen Roseberry
and Craig Kleffman run this bogus committee. They are not affiliated with the
official recall of George Gascon and are not authorized or legally able to
accept petitions according to my understanding of how these things work. I know
Karen and I understand some stuff in the background, but I don’t understand why
she’d engage in such a public way to disrupt the effort.

This is the strangest statement yet. There is nothing bogus about what they are all doing. Karen Roseberry drove all the way down from Antelope Valley to Naples, where I was protesting George Gascon, to provide me petitions, signs, and excellent talking points on postcards so that I could summarize to unsure LA County voters why they need to sign the petition to recall George Gascon! Helping get a guy recalled is not "bogus."

I have spoken with the volunteers for Recall Gascon Now–and they are not getting paid! I am not getting paid, either, but I am so committed to getting rid of this wicked, pro-criminal DA, that I will do what I can to get him RECALLED!

The blog continues:

The proponents
of this effort literally need 580,000 +/- Valid Signatures [sic] to put George Gascon
on the ballot and they only have 145ish days left to do it! Why is this other
group out there complicating the effort? The one accurate representation from
the email is that LA County demands all signatures to be delivered at once,
further protecting corrupt incumbents and complicating efforts. This puts an
exclamation point on the fact they are telling people to send their stuff to
another address.

This is also a nonsense argument. During the Recall Newsom movement, there were other PACs and groups that were collecting signatures. All the signatures follow the same ultimate process to be collected, reported, and recorded–and in two months' time, there will be an en masse vote to Recall Newsom! The same process is at work with the different PACs working in Los Angeles County to get rid of Gascon. There is no conflict, there is no clash, there is no frustration. The same petition will work toward getting rid of Gascon for good.

I am choosing to work with Recall Gascon Now because … they are working! I have nothing against the "Recall George Gascon" PAC. It makes little difference to me, other than seeing hardworking people getting vilified in anyway — that really bothers me. 

The blogpost then adds:

I’ve been told
that these folks have actually made off with boxes of signed petitions after
events. So, at least they are not trying to go Lincoln Project and grift cash
right? Visit their website and a big fat Donate Link is on the homepage.

Regarding "made off with boxes" after signed events, this statement is so vacuous as to be meaningless. If they were collecting signatures at the even, then of course they would make off with the boxes. "I've been told" does not add any credibility to this statement, either. No matter who sets up a table wherever to collect signatures, these volunteers are clearly instructed on who to deliver the petitions to. No one with any common sense can believe the statement above.

Regarding "donations", both websites have donation links. Why is anyone surprised? The Recall Gavin Newsom efforts had donation links, as well. Volunteers should receive some financial help (cost of gas, printing, etc.) Is that really something to get upset about?

Now, let's cut to the chase. What is going on with the blog that attacked "Recall Gascon Now"?

Political squabbles are nothing new to grassroots efforts. It is unfortunate, though, when a cause too important to fail suffers from this kind of partisanship. Why is this happening? A small set of individuals working for the "Recall George Gascon" camp is in pursuit of a paycheck. Regrettably, this all came to a head with that blog post, written by the usually trusted "intrepid blogger" from northern California (now residing in Nevada).

Just looking at the blog alone, one can see that it has merely put together purely unsubstantiated and uncited rumors he’d (probably?) heard about. Check that against what I am writing, and you can see that I have done my research, and I am naming names, and I even include proof that Mr. Crummitt is the well-established treasurer for Recall Gascon Now.

If anyone wants to start criticizing a grassroots efforts, they need to get their facts straight. They also should not let their commentary be based on Quid Pro Quo (Clarisse!). The "intrepid blogger", according to the sources I have spoken with, is looking to work with an upcoming US Senate race in Nevada. This offer comes form the same consultant — Jeff Corless — connected to the "Recall George Gascon" PAC. And there you have it. The "intrepid blogger" wrote the blog for money, nothing more.

Here is more information about the two groups most actively involved in the effort:

"Recall George Gascon" (aka the PAC Victims of Violent Crime for the Recall of District Attorney Gascon) is run unilaterally by one individual: Heather Carbone. Some volunteers have shared with me  that that one individual has alienated and expelled potential volunteers who have offered aid, assistance, and contributions to the Recall Gascon effort.