Semi Bird is getting the boot: Voters favor recall of the Republican gubernatorial candidate from the Richland School Board

Ultra MAGA Repub­li­can guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Semi Bird is on the verge of being removed from his perch on the Rich­land School Board, with vot­ers in the Tri-Cities area school dis­trict say­ing yes to a recall effort that was launched against him and two oth­er board mem­bers, Audra Byrd and Kari Williams, last year.

56.21% of votes tab­u­lat­ed so far favor the recall of Byrd.

56.4% favor the recall of Bird.

55.34% favor the recall of Williams.

Bar­ring some huge shift in late bal­lots, these three indi­vid­u­als will soon be removed from office and the Rich­land School Board will get a big makeover.

Bird, who has attract­ed scruti­ny for threat­en­ing a class-action law­suit over teach­ers’ per­son­al Face­book posts and fib­bing about being court-mar­tialed, had opt­ed not to seek reelec­tion to the school board because he claimed he want­ed to focus on his guber­na­to­r­i­al cam­paign. Bird trekked to NPI’s home­town of Red­mond this past week­end to speak at an event host­ed by megadonor Bri­an Hey­wood.

As he was doing so, vot­ers back in his com­mu­ni­ty were decid­ing his fate.

And while we won’t know the final ver­dict for a cou­ple more weeks, it does look like, based on these ear­ly returns, that Bird and his pals are all toast.

It’s impor­tant to note that this elec­toral judg­ment is com­ing from a place that usu­al­ly votes for Repub­li­cans for statewide office — Ben­ton Coun­ty. 58.59% of Ben­ton Coun­ty vot­ed for insur­rec­tion­ist Don­ald Trump in 2020. Grifter Loren Culp did even bet­ter, pulling in 63.57% of the vote in his guber­na­to­r­i­al bid.

If Bird can’t beat a recall in a com­mu­ni­ty that leans very con­ser­v­a­tive, he prob­a­bly isn’t going to have much appeal to a statewide electorate.

Bird was allowed to defend him­self with a mes­sage on the bal­lot itself (which is stan­dard pro­ce­dure for recalls) and he offered the fol­low­ing statement:

I act­ed in the best inter­est of stu­dent health and wel­fare. Giv­ing mask choice to stu­dents who we suf­fer­ing and dying was a top pri­or­i­ty. I met with the Ben­ton Coun­ty Direc­tor of Health, and was assured that my actions would not cause fur­ther stress on our hos­pi­tal sys­tem, but was also informed that the men­tal health com­pli­ca­tions caused by the masks need­ed to be tak­en into con­sid­er­a­tion. I did not vio­late OPMA as decid­ed by Supe­ri­or Court Judge Nor­ma Rodriguez. I stand for doing what’s right and respect­ing the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion. These man­dates ruined lives and was a vio­la­tion of our con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

Vot­ers clear­ly did not find this defense persuasive.

The NPI team has heard at least a cou­ple of polit­i­cal observers sug­gest that Bird could be a for­mi­da­ble obsta­cle to Dave Reichert mak­ing the gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot. The pre­lim­i­nary results of this recall make that view dif­fi­cult to defend.

Bird received 10% sup­port in NPI’s June 2023 poll of the Wash­ing­ton State elec­torate. He trailed Raul Gar­cia, who was run­ning for gov­er­nor until Dave Reichert got in, and has now switched to run­ning for Senate.

Bird’s atro­cious con­duct as a school board mem­ber led to mem­bers of his own com­mu­ni­ty decid­ing that account­abil­i­ty was sore­ly need­ed. Wash­ing­ton State allows for elect­ed offi­cials to be recalled if it can be demon­strat­ed they com­mit­ted an act of mis­fea­sance or malfea­sance in office. That’s what is hap­pen­ing here.

For those who haven’t heard the back­sto­ry, here’s a primer from the recall orga­niz­ers, who have a web­site explain­ing their cause. They write:

“On Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 15, 2022, Rich­land School Board Direc­tors Audra Byrd, M. Semi Bird, and Kari Williams par­tic­i­pat­ed in a spe­cial meet­ing, held a vote that was not includ­ed on the meet­ing agen­da, and took the final action of mak­ing masks option­al in Rich­land Schools, effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly. In doing so, they broke sev­er­al Wash­ing­ton State laws and vio­lat­ed their oaths of office.”

The recall charges specif­i­cal­ly allege that the three board members:

1. Vio­lat­ed the Open Pub­lic Meet­ings Act by vot­ing at a spe­cial meet­ing tak­ing final action on a mat­ter, to wit: mask­ing option­al, that had not been includ­ed in the pub­lished pub­lic meet­ing agenda.
2. Vot­ed to make masks at schools option­al, in know­ing vio­la­tion of the law and in excess of the pow­ers of a school board, even after warn­ings from the State and from legal counsel.
3. Vio­lat­ed Dis­trict Poli­cies and Pro­ce­dures by fail­ing to assure com­pli­ance with law and policy.

“There is evi­dence that the three col­lab­o­rat­ed before the meet­ing to plan for tak­ing the vote, which is in vio­la­tion of RCW 42.30, the Open Pub­lic Meet­ings Act,” the recall orga­niz­ers go on to say on their website.

“The recall was ini­ti­at­ed April 11, 2022. It was reviewed by Ben­ton Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Nor­ma Rodriguez on May 9, 2022 and allowed to pro­ceed. Direc­tors Byrd, Bird, and Williams appealed her deci­sion. On Feb­ru­ary 9, 2023, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court con­clud­ed that the recall peti­tion was “legal­ly and fac­tu­al­ly suf­fi­cient” and sig­na­ture gath­er­ing could com­mence. The Supreme Court opin­ion was pub­lished April 27, 2023.”

Results in the August 2023 Top Two elec­tion are due to be cer­ti­fied on August 15th. At that time, we’ll have the final num­bers from these recalls.