By The River

I received a Facebook e-mail the other day from a neighbor who was in despair at ever being able to sell his Shipoke house with Linda Thompson becoming mayor of Harrisburg in January. His house has been up for sale for quite awhile, since well before Thompson's Democratic primary victory last spring, and they've already moved out to a new home they built in the East Shore suburbs.

He asked me if there was a way to impeach Thompson, and he was quite serious about it. I told him there was a procedure for recalling mayors, but I didn't know the details of how it worked.

Now I do. If you go to this link, you will find good and bad news. The good news is that she can be recalled from office. The bad news is that Pennsylvania law bars recall elections during a new mayor's first year in office. The law actually states that this is to give the new mayor time to build a "performance record." Given Thompson's Loveship performance record, perhaps 10 years would be more fair.

But if Thompson performs like she did at Loveship, and as many assume she will as mayor, a recall petition can be filed in January 2011. It must contain valid signatures of 25 percent of the number of people who cast votes in the most recent mayoral election, with no more than one-fifth of the total coming from any one precinct. Because only 9,046 people voted in the Harrisburg mayoral election in 2009, there would need to be only 2,263 signatures on the recall petition, although it is generally advised to get double that number to be safe from challenges.

Once the petition is certified, the mayor has 10 days to resign or face a recall election. If Thompson lost a recall election, she would be barred from public office in Harrisburg, elected or appointed, for two years. City council would elect her successor, who would serve until the next municipal election. If council failed to do so, or achieved only a tie vote, ten voters could petition Dauphin County Court to appoint a successor.

Thompson won a narrow victory over Nevin Mindlin, by just 842 votes, and therein lies the peril and promise of recall. More than 27,000 registered Harrisburg voters failed to cast votes for mayor. How many of them opposed Thompson, but didn't want to vote for a white Jewish Republican (Mindlin) they knew little about? And how many were just apathetic drones who couldn't be bothered? The answer to those questions will decide a recall election. Thompson opponents would need to mount a fast and overwhelming media campaign, including the TV ads that might well have turned the election to Mindlin if he could have afforded them. Where will that money come from?

An election would also have to overcome Thompson's know-nothing base of about 4,000 voters who were unswayed by the massive evidence presented during the campaign that she was unfit to be mayor.

I know how many voters in Harrisburg are feeling right now. I hear from some of them periodically, and I know how I feel. They are deeply depressed that the city they devoted their lives to, where they owned and rehabilitated homes, raised their children, and rejoiced as the city came back under Mayor Reed from the depths of the early 1980s, is about to be taken over by someone they regard as a grifter, an illegitimate mayor who drew the votes of 12 percent of the electorate and who can do incalculable damage before she is removed from office. I think of those photographs of people in occupied Paris weeping as the German Army victory parade goes by. We trusted too much in our own Maginot Line--Mayor Reed--and failed to see the danger.

It is of critical importance that all good citizens become involved and not let despair prevent you from fighting back. We can't let the city become an ATM machine for Thompson and her friends. Go to council meetings. Speak out. Don't be intimidated. Your city needs you.