A campaign to recall Washington, D.C., Councilman Charles Allen, a Democrat in Ward 6, has gained momentum in fundraising across the district.
Last week, organizers said they raised more than $54,000 in donations for the effort in two weeks from close to 400 individual donors.
“What started as a group of fed-up parents, neighbors and friends has transformed into a movement that has energized Ward 6 and captured the city’s attention. In the 10 days since we formally launched this campaign, we have raised over $54,000 from 385 individuals. Thank you,” the Committee to Recall Charles Allen said in a statement.
The group added: “This campaign is just getting started and there is a lot of hard work ahead. Together, we can change this city and make DC a place where families again feel safe to walk down the street or can wait idle in their car while a loved one comes down. This issue is larger than Ward — but it starts here.”
Rich Masters, a recall campaign spokesman, told the Washington Examiner that the group, as of Monday, has raised around $60,000 in donations.
“It has surprised us. There’s a real appetite for change,” Masters said.
The recall effort was launched against Allen in December over his soft-on-crime approach to criminal justice reform policies, which led to soaring crime amid slashed police budgets. The recall campaign has used the grassroots means of social media and a website to share updates and calls to action.
“In his tenure as Chair of Judiciary and Public Safety Committee (2017-2022), Charles Allen has systematically undermined the criminal justice and public safety system that made DC one of the safest big cities in America for more than a decade. Now, D.C. has one of the highest reported violent crime rates in the entire country, with 812 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Instead of protecting the city, Charles Allen led the charge to open the jail doors and let out violent criminals — carjackers and people convicted of gun crimes,” the recall committee’s website reads.
The group’s explanation for the recall continued: “While violent crime soared in every ward of the District, instead of reforming the police department and giving it the tools needed to do its job, Charles Allen used his Chairmanship of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee to slash the police department budget.”
Masters believes the cumulative and recent string of violent carjackings has fueled passionate volunteers and donors to help with the recall effort. The fatal carjacking of Mike Gill, a Washingtonian who was a friend of many political operatives on Capitol Hill, happened when he was sitting in his vehicle last Monday night on K Street as he waited to pick up his wife from work when he was shot during a violent rampage in the district.
Masters says his own neighborhood has experienced five carjackings in just the past month.
The majority of the recall effort has had the backing of Democratic operatives, but independents and Republicans have also united behind the campaign.
“Decimating the police budget and allowing violent offenders back on the street are failed policies,” Masters said.
The organizers believe that the crime wave is hitting everyone in the district, including the vulnerable neighborhoods that desperately need stores such as CVS for their prescriptions but have had businesses shuttered due to rampant theft.
While the effort to recall a council member is historically unprecedented in Washington, it is not impossible.
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The Board of Elections could issue petitions for the recall at its Feb. 13 meeting. This would then allow the recall campaign to amp up its efforts by collecting petitions with its army of volunteers. Following the board meeting, the recall campaign plans a Feb. 15 meeting of volunteers to put its petition collection in force during the months of March and April in hopes of collecting more than 8,000 signatures. When the group finishes its signature collection, the election board will have 30 days to certify the signatures, and it then will have roughly 114 days for the recall election.
The effort comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration has pressured employers in Washington to bring workers back into the offices despite the crime wave. Effective March 10, employees of the district will be shifting from two telework days per week to one. Numerous unions have risen up in protest, stating that the city is not safe enough for employees to have fewer telework days.
