Bid to recall Jindal falling way short

An effort started six months ago to recall Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal has fizzled, but the Opelousas man behind the petition will continue trying to oust the governor by running against him this fall. Ron Ceasar would have needed to gather more than 908,000 verified signatures by Tuesday to get a recall election against Jindal. Fewer than five dozen have been registered with the Secretary of State’s Office. “We would need all of them by the deadline set. We have only 55 at present, and the deadline is July 5th,” says Sailor Jackson, a spokesman for the Secretary of State Tom Schedler. No one has ever successfully gathered enough signatures to get a recall election scheduled against a statewide or parishwide official in Louisiana. A full-time Ph.D. student at Southern University, Ceasar says he and his supporters brought in more signatures than what is on file with the Secretary of State’s Office, but he acknowledged the recall election won’t happen. Instead, Ceasar, a 58-year-old registered independent, says he’s challenging Jindal in the Oct. 22 election. Ceasar says the recall petition helped him gain attention and supporters encouraged him to run against the governor. Jindal hasn’t attracted major or well-funded opposition in his reelection bid so far. A Democratic school teacher from Haynesville, Tara Hollis, has said she’s running for the governor’s seat. Jindal, seeking a second term, has more than $9 million in his campaign war chest.