LAURIE ROBERTS

Roberts: Will Diane Douglas go the way of Evan Mecham?

Laurie Roberts
opinion columnist
Max Goshert, (left), chairman of the Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas, receives a completed copy after Mary Fontes, of the Secretary of State's office, reviewed Goshert's application to begin the process of collecting signatures for a statewide recall of Douglas, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, at the Secretary of State's office at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix on Tuesday, September 1, 2015.

The drive to recall state Superintendent Diane Douglas begins now.

The Coalition to Recall Diane Douglas this morning filed paperwork to do what organizers vowed to do even before Douglas took office – to bounce her from the job.

Though it might seem like a slam dunk given Douglas’ performance thus far, it’s no easy thing to oust a statewide elected official.

They’ll need to gather roughly 366,000 valid voter signatures by Dec. 30.

That’s about 3,000 valid signatures a day. Plus another 750 or so to serve as a cushion.

All this, from a force of volunteers.

That’s not difficult. It’s all but impossible.

But it has been done.

In 1987, an effort to recall then-Gov. Evan Mecham began almost six months to the day after he took office. Volunteers gathered nearly 300,000 signatures, well over the 216,746 needed.

His paranoia and bizarre proclamations paved the way for recall organizers to scoop up signatures -- though ultimately he was impeached and ousted before he could stand again before voters.

''Never before has one man alienated so many people in such a short period of time,” said Ed Buck, the then-33-year-old entrepreneur who led the drive to recall Mecham.

It was an epic fail. Mecham battled fellow Republicans with his right-wing views and alienated Asian Americans, African Americans, women, the LGBT community and whole host of others with ignorant comments and astonishing appointees. Who can forget his education adviser, who once told the Legislature: ''If a student wants to say the world is flat, the teacher doesn't have the right to prove otherwise.''

Who can forget his proclamation that the attorney general was eavesdropping on his office via laser beams?

As with the recall of Mecham, recall organizers have a secret weapon in Diane Douglas.The question is just how much does she plan to help them out?

In her first seven months in office, Douglas has done just as her detractors predicted: obsessing over Common Core to the point of picking a fight with the state Board of Education over "liberal" staffers whom she believes are standing in her way. Never mind that she has no authority to repeal Common Core.

Other than launching one well-aimed verbal missile at Gov. Doug Ducey over his funding priorities – saying that he is "depriv(ing) schools of hundreds of millions of dollars to give to his corporate cronies as tax cuts" – she’s done nothing to advocate for better funding of schools.

Nothing to even begin to address the tide of teachers who are fleeing Arizona’s classrooms. (Nearly one in four first-year teachers didn’t return this year.)

Nothing, after seven months, to show that she has any actual plan to improve public education in this state. Except, of course, for repealing Common Core.

Which she can’t do.

She did throw a fit and sue the state Board of Education, asking a judge to declare that the board's staff reports to her, not to the board, and to demand that the fleeing staffers return to her building. The judge sided with the board.

Naturally, she’s appealing, and isn't that a fine use of taxpayer money?.

Six months ago, I would have said that a recall was impossible. And now?

Now, I’d say it's time to pass the popcorn. The next four months should be fascinating to watch.