Political consultant sues signature firm over failed Adams recall

Political consultant Mike Schroeder has filed a lawsuit against a signature-gathering firm in the wake of last year’s failed recall attempt against Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia.
 
Adams became a target of conservative members of his own party after voting for a Democratic-backed budget plan in February of last year. But the recall attempt run by Schroeder failed in November after the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters rejected 65 percent of the sample signature submitted to them. A little over half of the 59th Assembly District sits in San Bernardino County.
 
Those signatures were gathered by The Campaign Finance Company LLC, a company run by Derrick Lee. Based in Arizona, Lee has been in the signature-gathering field for years, running at least two separate companies.
 
“It was a little trouble finding him, but we served him on Monday,” Schroeder said.
 
The suit accuses Lee of fraud and breach of contract for falling far short of the number of signatures needed to qualify. Schroeder contracted with Lee’s company on June 10, paying $100,000 to gather the 35,825 valid signatures to get a recall of Adams on the ballot. 
 
The lawsuit states that Campaign Finance was supposed to deliver a 70 percent validity rate, but only deliver 42 percent valid signatures. The suit also that Campaign Finance failed to verify signatures and should have known that they would not reach the necessary 70 percent rate.
 
“No comment at this time,” said Lee when reached by phone Tuesday afternoon.
 
Adams announced in January that he would not seek reelection.