Effort to recall Guinn expected to be started

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003 | 11:37 a.m.

A conservative who last year mounted a campaign to oust Nevada's only openly gay lawmaker will now try to recall Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Tony Dane, a Republican activist, said this morning he will file paperwork with the secretary of state's office in Las Vegas on Wednesday to initiate a recall of Guinn.

Dane first proposed a recall of Guinn at the start of this year's legislative session, shortly after the governor proposed $1.1 billion in new taxes. He launched a website, recallguinn.com, designed to drum up support for a recall in February.

Dane said the website, since it was posted in February, has had 18,000 people sign up as interested in the effort. More than 300 have volunteered to help collect signatures, he said.

The group must get about 128,000 signatures statewide in order to force a recall election. Once the group files paperwork with the secretary of state's office, it has 90 days to collect the signatures, which then must be verified by the secretary of state's staff.

If the effort is successful, a recall election could be held as early as February, Dane said.

No Nevada elected official has ever been recalled from office and no recall election has even been held, according to state archivist Guy Rocha.

"We're going to need the full 90 days" to collect the signatures, Dane said. "The recall laws are a lot stiffer here than they are in California. But because of the website it will make it a little easier for me."

Dane, who ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 1996, said he thought support for a recall would remain strong through the whole process.