Frustrated Voters Recall Mayors Online

In 2008, much was made about how the Obama campaign’s mastery of social media helped catapult a young, relatively unknown senator into the White House. But three years later, voters are harnessing the power of social media not to put candidates into office, but to “throw the bums out.” Recall elections have gone viral, and angry voters throughout the country are using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to drive recall efforts against unpopular politicians. One of the hardest hit groups have been mayors. According to Ballotpedia, a website that tracks recall elections, 57 mayors faced recall attempts last year, and 15 are facing the same challenge this year. That’s why the U.S. Conference of Mayors is launching a campaign warning mayors that they could be next.
Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College and the founder of The Recall Elections Blog, gives us a history of the recall election.  Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director of the United States Conference of Mayors, tells us how mayors are fighting back.