Countywide : Attempt to Recall Wieder Is Dropped

A fledgling attempt to recall County Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder has died, a spokeswoman for the effort said Monday.

A group claiming to represent 100 Huntington Beach residents unhappy with Wieder’s performance had planned to serve the supervisor with formal notice of the month-old recall effort Monday. But spokeswoman Kimberly Hahn said the group reconsidered its plans over the weekend and concluded that the effort was futile.

“Realizing Supervisor Wieder’s position as a lame duck, we decided our energies could be better spent” by developing local support for Gov. Pete Wilson’s reelection bid in 1994, Hahn said.

Wieder has said she will not seek reelection. Her term expires in January, 1995.

Hahn, a homemaker, has refused to name other people involved in the effort, except to say that they are Huntington Beach area residents who had grown dissatisfied with Wieder, in particular with what Hahn called her “anti-business” philosophies.

Rumors have circulated in government circles for weeks that some Republican Party activists were involved in the effort. Wieder drew the ire of fellow Republicans last year by breaking party ranks to back the presidential bid of Bill Clinton. And her relations in some quarters appear to have worsened in recent months as she clashed with colleagues over the county’s budget dilemma and other controversial issues.

But Wieder said she called Republican Party County Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes about the issue several weeks ago and was satisfied that the party was not involved. She declined to comment on the demise of the recall effort.

It would take 25,544 signatures from Wieder’s Huntington Beach-based district--or 10% of the total registered voters--to force a recall election. Analysts say such a massive undertaking would require several hundred thousand dollars in local financing for mailers and petition drives.

While that effort has been dropped, Hahn said she will be watching to see if Wieder runs for Congress or other office. “If she happens to run for office, we will unite to defeat her,” Hahn promised.