Chispa Beats Back a Police Union Funded Recall in Santa Ana

TA in the News
Written By Charlotte Williams

This month, we’re happy to amplify the work of our partner Chispa, an organizing, political home for young Latinxs building power and community in Orange County, CA! Please join us in celebrating their recent win in beating back a police union funded recall in Santa Ana!

Chispa Beats Back a Police Union Funded Recall in Santa Ana!

By Hairo Cortes, Chispa Executive Director

Friends, I wanted to put together a much nicer and more thorough update for you, but the news is what's important.

Despite facing close to $800K in spending by the Santa Ana Police Officers' Association and corporate landlords, Chispa endorsed council member, Jessie Lopez, scored a decisive victory this week when voters rejected the campaign to recall her on a margin of 56% - 44%.

Background: 

For us at Chispa, this win is an affirmation of our work and the infrastructure we've built. We were founded in large part to build an organization capable of challenging police union influence in Santa Ana when many of us realized how opposed police unions were to everything we were fighting for (whether it was criminal justice reform, housing, or immigrant rights).

Leading up to 2020 we engaged in a corporate accountability-style campaign of bringing transparency and visibility to the POA and educating the community about the various ways this single entity influenced the city for the worst. We endorsed a slate of progressive candidates and won a council majority with the backbone to challenge the POA.

This is where the recall had its origins. For decades police union contracts were sacred in Santa Ana, and the thought of using those contract negotiations to push for transparency and accountability in policing was taboo due to the threat of a recall. But years of organizing in conjunction with an emergent electoral strategy built the conditions to do so. 

This recall's results affirm that our strategy paid off, and significantly diminished the potency of POA-backed recalls as a policy enforcement mechanism. 

Chispa Contributions: Direct and Indirect 

While I will never say Chispa is the silver bullet in this campaign, I can say we’re proud of everything we’ve done. We can take credit for a lot of volunteer hours in the weekly canvasses and phone banks by members.  

We can take credit for helping Jessie's campaign raise at least $50,000 of its nearly $180,000 budget by engaging our donors and staffing Jessie’s Call Time Fundraising. 

And we can take credit in knowing that we polarized the Santa Ana electorate against the Police Union through years of organizing.

Indirectly, we're proud of coordinating with our local, statewide, and national partners to bring together an unprecedented support infrastructure in this campaign. Especially of note are OC Action, California Working Families Party, Mijente, and the Democratizing Justice Initiative. 

Looking Forward: 

This win is a mandate. It's a policy mandate. It's a political mandate. And it's an organizing mandate.

Where most of the country is sliding backward on criminal justice and policing reforms, Santa can and must move forward. 

For Chispa, this is a moment to build on policy development infrastructure to stay proactive and at the forefront. It’s also the moment to further build our political infrastructure and expertise to fully maximize our 50c4 and PAC entities. And to grow our political home and continue to incubate and nurture young Latinx leadership.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all your support. Below are some articles for context in this whole endeavor. 

News Articles:

Support and follow Chispa at Chispaoc.org and on social media - Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Charlotte Williams
Next

Organizing Young Latino Power in The Real OC - Hairo Cortes of Chispa