Castañeda Lives: Salinas recall petition fails.

Update 9:30am 1-7-13

Salinas Councilman Jose Castañeda lives to fight another day. For months, the embattled politician has been under the shadow of recall threat. But no more.

The recall petition received by the city in November doesn’t meet the minimum number of signatures required by state law, according to Salinas City Clerk Patricia Barajas.

“Therefore,” she writes by email, “the petition is insufficient.”

According to Barajas, the number of signatures needed by the anti-Castañeda crew for a recall election is 1449. Though 1740 signatures were counted, 414 of those were found “not sufficient" and subsequently disqualified. Some major issues include signatures of voters not registered within Castañeda’s district and multiple addresses that appeared to have been filled out by the same person. In the end the petition was left with only 1326 valid signatures.

The petition against Castañeda was filed by East Salinas resident Juan Sandoval, who worked for months to upend the politician.

The Castañeda affair follows a separate petition started last May to recall Mayor Joe Gunter, who at the time was involved in a public feud with the councilman over whether Castañeda could hold a seat on the council and the Alisal Union school board at the same time. Last September Castañeda was ordered by a Monterey judge to resign from his school board seat. The petition against Gunter was never returned.

In a statement, Castañeda commends Sandoval for his "valiant efforts to become involved in the politics of our community." 

But the councilman says that energy might be better used to focus on pressing issues like youth gang violence and high utilities prices. 

The recall attempt, Castañeda says, "derives from the old status quo Latino guard of political factions within Salinas." 

"I pledge to continue to be an outspoken advocate, to challenge the status quo, and to continue asking the difficult questions that will create change we need for our community to move forward," he says.