Recall effort against Sen. Aisha Wahab falls apart

The current recall effort against state Sen. Aisha Wahab — provoked by her contentious caste discrimination bill — won’t move forward, after proponents say they were unable to submit signatures. 

The deadline was today to turn in 42,802 valid signatures of voters in the district, which includes parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.    

But Ritesh Tandon, one of the recall organizers and a congressional candidate in 2020, 2022 and the primary in March, said a line on the forms that were required to submit signatures was missing. He claimed they had collected more than 30,000 signatures by March. 

The Secretary of State’s office, which cleared the proponents to start collecting signatures in December, confirmed it was notified of the problem, but said it told the proponents on Feb. 20 that the issue was not enough to invalidate the petition.

“The proponents were notified that the recall effort could continue, and that they should instruct the circulators to sign the declaration in the blank margin under the declaration of circulator statements,” the Secretary of State’s office told CalMatters today.

Tandon, however, said it was impossible to go back to the petition circulators — he said there were 10,000 — to add their signatures.

The organizers say they’ve learned lessons from the process and will try again to recall the Democratic senator from Fremont, whose first term runs until 2026. 

“It’s disappointing to see that this is their third attempt, based on the fact that I carried a bill about civil rights and they’re not happy with it,” Wahab told CalMatters. “It’s disappointing to see the amount of time and energy and money that is going into this effort. And there are people that are fundraising off of this and putting money in their own pockets over the misinformation that they’re sharing with the community.”

The recall was originally started last year in response to Wahab’s bill to strengthen protections against caste discrimination in employment and housing. The Legislature passed a version of the bill, which was opposed by groups who alleged the bill unfairly targeted Hindu Californians, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it.

Now, recall organizers say the caste bill is no longer the reason, and instead take issue with Wahab’s work as the new chairperson of the Senate’s Public Safety committee and concerns over crime, including not responding to shooting deaths and vehicle fires in the district, and for introducing a bill that would prohibit asking housing applicants to disclose any criminal history.