Another Lantigua recall effort begins

Yesterday, Lantigua vowed to fight the second recall attempt but he said it would not distract him from his work in the city.

“As the first recall failed, this is going to fail even worse because many more people are aware,’’ Lantigua said yesterday in a telephone interview. “They’re not going to sign [the recall petitions]; they’re not going to be deceived.’’

After a bitterly contested campaign this summer, the first recall attempt fell 866 voter signatures short of the 5,232 required to put a recall election on the ballot. Organizers of that group, called It’s Your Right, had turned in more signatures but the city rejected many as invalid.

Lantigua supporters had battled back with their own campaign, called I Won’t Sign.

Now, Hernández said the group has a new strategy - to collect signatures as voters leave the polls on Election Day in November to reduce the potential for fraud. He said it will also collect signatures door to door and at a local lawyer’s office.

To launch the recall process formally, the group must collect 150 voter signatures for a petition to submit to City Hall. Then it will have to collect enough signatures to compel a recall election, a number that is equivalent to 15 percent of the voter turnout in the last election.

Critics say Lantigua is a divisive figure unqualified to tackle Lawrence’s problems, which include high unemployment, crime, and struggling schools.

Since the start of his term in January 2010, Lantigua has been mired in controversy. At first, he refused to resign his state representative’s seat while serving as mayor, drawing two government paychecks as the city sank into a financial crisis; he later resigned his representative seat.

Lantigua also drew criticism for slashing the police force and for writing letters of recommendation for accused criminals.