This came over the transom earlier this morning from the Diane Harkey Recall, as I reclined in the dentist's chair:

The Recall Diane Harkey Committee announced today that it is ending the Recall signature gathering effort in Dana Point. The committee will not submit signatures to the registrar of voters and the recall effort is ended.

Although the committee collected many signatures of Dana Point residents to recall Councilmember Diane Harkey, the requirement of collecting 20% of registered voters - over 4,300 signatures, proved to be too high a hurdle to achieve without sufficient financial resources to collect the signatures, and to counter Harkey's ample self-funded opposition, which included the dirty tricks of her supporters, documented at www.theliberaloc.com, such as the illegal stealing and destruction of pro-Recall campaign signs.

Nevertheless, the Committee is proud to point to these achievements over the last four months:

1. Diane Harkey is no longer Mayor of Dana Point. Just last week, another member of the City Council was selected as Mayor.

2. Diane Harkey is highly unpopular in Dana Point. According to a NSON Opinion Research poll of 200 registered voters in Dana Point who are familiar with Harkey, conducted November 28-30, 2007, almost 30% of respondents viewed her unfavorably. When informed of her family businesses' 14 tax liens, almost 50% of voters stated they would change their opinion of her. The poll suggests Harkey would have trouble winning another election in Dana Point.

3. During the recall effort, Harkey made several politically motivated decisions on the City Council which proved unpopular. Her actions under pressure of the recall demonstrate her unfitness for higher office:

• Harkey voted for and publicly defended a $50 million settlement of a personal injury lawsuit by the City that blew the aggregate limits of the City's insurance coverage and has left the city exposed with less than $1 million in insurance coverage for the balance of the current term. Harkey's settlement occurred without even taking the case to trial. Personal injury attorneys have been quoted as saying the settlement amount is one of the biggest in Orange County history. Because insurance coverage is pooled with other cities, taxpayers across the state will be paying for Harkey's out-of-court settlement for years to come in the form of higher insurance rates.

• Harkey and her Council violated the Brown Act for political gain. Harkey participated in an action designed to appear as if the City Council had passed a formal resolution opposing her recall. Sacramento-based Brown Act expert Terry Franke, General Counsel of Californians Aware, concluded that Harkey's action "was likely a Brown Act violation." Though claiming no Brown Act violation, she and her Council responded to a legal complaint by formally retracting the illegal resolution opposing the recall effort, to avoid a lawsuit. (Councilmember Lara Anderson did not participate in the Brown Act violation.)

• Harkey attacked the Rev. Robert Schuller by name on Los Angeles radio, over what she termed "an unholy alliance" between his church and the United States Post Office regarding the planning of a facility to improve postal service in south Orange County. Harkey could have made her point without the cheap-shot at a good man who does not deserve to be dragged into the mud.

• Harkey embarrassed herself with the public and Orange County Register political Reporter Martin Wisckol by complaining to him that she was "not that unphotogenic," and that the newspaper was using "unflattering" photographs of her.

4. Harkey compounded her troubles by revelations of other actions attempting to leverage her office for political gain:

• A member of Harkey's own law firm was revealed to be behind an anonymous, "city" newsletter, designed to look like an official city publication, which was very flattering to Harkey personally, and mailed during the recall effort. It included an unauthorized and illegal use of the city seal, as well as official city council portraits. Harkey publicly praised the anonymous publication. But in response to a "cease and desist" letter from the City Manager, the bogus outfit agreed to stop the illegal use of the city seal. This outfit has failed to file required disclosure forms with the California Secretary of State and to this day the only individual publicly associated with it is a member of Harkey's law firm.

The Recall Committee has decided to maintain its highly popular website and change its status to a permanent political committee in opposition to Harkey's political ambitions. The Recall Committee thanks all who signed petitions and urges voters and the public to research Harkey's record of bullying, and her lack of credentials, and to reject her at the polls in her campaign for the 73rd Assembly District. Our new name is "Diane Harkey Watch!" - www.dianeharkeywatch.com

This isn't surprising in the wake of the poll results released last week by the Harkey Recall. The numbers weren't there for a recall campaign.

So what does a recall campaign do in this situation: congratulate yourselves on "calling attention" to "the issues" and vow to continue "calling attention" to "the issues," which in this case is Diane Harkey.

I was deeply skeptical about the feasibility of this recall effort from the get-go, and I doubt Diane Harkey will lose too much sleep over the establishment of the Diane Harkey Watch. Barring an unforeseen development, she'll be sworn in to the Assembly in a year.