Recall elections are becoming more and more a part of California's political landscape. The latest one is in Orange County, where Santa Ana’s powerful police union is filing to oust a couple of progressive members of the City Council, something they've done in the past successfully. The targeted council members, Jessie Lopez and Thai Viet Phan, held a press conference today outside City Hall to denounce the recall effort. Lopez said of union head Jerry Serrano’s motives: “It is nothing short of coercion and blackmail to ensure he has someone on that dais who will do what he wants.”
“It's such a mess that the Mayor Valerie Amezcula, who's a conservative Democrat, has said there is a cancer in her police department on both sides of the equation, and she just does not want to have it,” shares Gustavo Arellano, LA Times columnist.