Local News in Brief : Countywide : Deadline Passes for Riley, Wieder Recalls

The recall efforts launched last summer against County Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder and Thomas F. Riley officially died at 5 p.m. Tuesday when the deadline for filing petitions passed without any being submitted.

The campaigns were started by supporters of the county’s slow-growth movement, who complained that the two supervisors were attempting to protect several major developments and circumvent efforts to pass a slow-growth initiative.

Both supervisors denied the accusations.

Doug Langevin, a Huntington Beach businessman and leader of the anti-Wieder campaign, acknowledged Tuesday that the effort had failed, but declined to say how many signatures his group had collected. He said Wieder would use the information as “a political football.”

The recall required 20,651 signatures, constituting 10% of registered voters in Wieder’s supervisorial district.

Terri Quam, who helped organize the Riley recall, conceded last week that the effort had failed.

Both organizers blamed the defeat of the slow-growth initiative last June for the collapse of their recall efforts.

Langevin also said that Wieder’s defeat in her bid for a congressional seat last spring also caused volunteers in the recall effort to relax somewhat, concluding that her political career had already been damaged.