S.F. Democrats Play Game of Telephone Over Non-Existent JROTC Recall Effort

Jim Sutton said what? Hello? Operator?

Tonight's Democratic County Central Committee meeting features a resolution that seems to have expired in relevance not long after it was put to paper.

DCCC Chairman Aaron Peskin put forth a measure, to be voted on at tonight's session, critical of "threatened recall campaigns" against school board members Kim-Shree Maufas, Jane Kim, and Sandra Fewer over their opposition to the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program in city schools.

No sooner had the press caught wind of this resolution, however, than local Republican Party officials denied that there was any such effort underway. Peskin, meanwhile told SF Weekly in a telephone interview that he had heard of the recall rumors from Fewer, who in turn heard about them from fellow school board member Rachel Norton. Peskin said he called Norton after he heard of the Republican denials -- and that Norton told him she had heard of the recall effort from Jim Sutton, a prominent San Francisco campaign lawyer.

We called Sutton, who said it was "absolutely false" that he -- or any of his current clients -- is planning to initiate a recall effort on the school board over JROTC.

Peskin acknowledged that no paperwork for recalls had been filed. As a result, he plans to simply continue the item at tonight's meeting. "Perhaps it had its intended outcome," he said of the resolution.