Dallas activist and business owner Davante Peters launched the recall petition in January, citing Johnson’s City Hall attendance record and party switch to Republican as reasons he wanted the mayor out of office. It would have taken 103,595 signatures to recall Johnson. Peters had been collecting signatures since January, but he failed to submit any to the city secretary.
On his attendance record, Johnson said in the press release that his annual attendance rate has averaged 93.5% the past four years. However, KERA has reported that Johnson has missed more than 130 hours of City Council meetings since 2019.
“This was a big, fat nothing-burger cooked up by self-promoting partisan opportunists and served up by some click-hungry members of our local media whose breathless ‘reporting’ on the subject too often resembled an endorsement of this ridiculous recall effort,” Johnson said in the press release. “My attendance was never truly the issue, and my publicly available attendance record proves it. My Administration’s policies and vision for this city have remained unchanged and unwavering.”
He said Peters’ effort never resembled anything legitimate and was a waste of time, energy and ink. “This was a nakedly partisan game played by leftists spinning a phony narrative,” he said. “In the end, far more words were written about this abject failure than there were lawful signatures gathered.”"Fortunately, the people of Dallas know that our city is better off than it was five years ago." – Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson
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He added: "Fortunately, the people of Dallas know that our city is better off than it was five years ago. And despite numerous challenges and ample political noise, we have remained focused on what actually matters to our residents: making our city safer, stronger and more vibrant. We will continue to do so as we move forward together in the years ahead."
Reached for comment, Peters said although he did collect some signatures, he didn’t want to submit any because he didn’t want to “show our hand.” This is because he plans to launch another recall effort soon. He said when he initially filed his petition to recall the mayor, he hoped Democratic organizations in Dallas would support him, but that didn’t happen. “We’re going to re-strategize, get a new strategy without expecting anything from those organizations,” he said.
Peters called Johnson’s press release “childlike.”
“I don’t take it personally,” Peters said. “I just feel like a more mature person would listen to the concerns and the hearts of the community, and he could have used that press release as an opportunity to allow the community and citizens to understand why he made the decision [to switch parties] as opposed to trying to taunt their efforts.”
