The Luna Recall…A Project Of Humor – by Kelly Klaas

Remember the effort that began about two years ago to recall State School Superintendent Tom Luna?  You know, the "latest one."  I vaguely remember it too.  It was a group of discontented Idaho residents who thought Luna went too far in trying to change Idaho's education system.  The "Luna Laws" were at the heart of the deal.

I don't fault them for exercising their constitutional rights by initiating the recall but  it seems like the whole effort has been surrounded in humor and silliness.  Pete Peterson, from the Treasure Valley area, was in charge of the latest effort which has been dragging along for nearly two years now.  I like Pete...he's hard not to like.

But this whole effort, from the beginning, has been difficult to take seriously.  Pete, a stand-up comic in his spare time, has always made it sound like it was a joke.  He would talk about the web site and how you could print out your recall-Luna bumper sticker.  He would talk about the "Recall Luna" t-shirts that should be arriving any day now  He  would brag about the $3 (or something like that) in the treasury.  It got to where the media would not even respond to his call for a news conference.  They've even called an end to the effort a time or two and now it's back on again.

The latest effort is to get a MILLION people to go their website to "sign" a petition.  If they get the MILLION people to sign it then they will start the REAL recall effort by having people sign REAL petitions around the state. That falls on the heels of their idea of getting 300 people to donate $10 by sometime in May or give up on it.  Haven't heard how that one turned out.

Where are they going to get the MILLION people to sign the petition to start the REAL recall effort when there are only about 1.5-million people in the entire state?  Anywhere in the world.  Pete victoriously announced that they've taken the recall world-wide.  He says they have had a person from London, England sign the online petition as well as one from San Fransisco.  What an idea...getting people worldwide involved in Idaho politics that they know (and care) nothing about.  This is one of the most ridiculous efforts I've ever heard of.

If they do get the MILLION signups and do go for the recall they only have to get 156,000 and some signatures by June 13th. Well, that shouldn't be difficult at all should it? I don't think they've collected half that many in all the previous efforts combined and back when it was fresh on everyone's mind, let alone by June 13th.    I just checked the recall Luna website and they have 27 supporters so far.  WOW...it won't be long now!

I'm not going to make a judgement call on Mr. Luna.  Whether he has been good or bad for Idaho education is in the eye of the beholder.  It seems that you either love him or hate him...there seems to be very few in between.  But if you are going to attempt to recall someone then get in there, get it right,  get it done or get out. Don't string it along with a bunch of poor humor, silliness and poor management.

It seems at this point the struggling attempt at a recall is getting nowhere fast.  Hopefully, when they fail to get the MILLION worldwide signups, they will let this rest.  If you want to take him out, do it in the next election or launch a recall effort with some seriousness.  It seems that if this was going to get traction and be successful, it would have happened way before now.