District 5 Councilmember Aurelio Mattucci has survived a recall attempt because organizers didn’t submit signatures by last week’s deadline, Torrance City Clerk Rebecca Poirier said recently.
Jean Adelsman, a spokesperson for the recall’s organizers, said in a recent interview that the group “came close” to obtaining the 3,480 signatures needed to put a recall of Mattucci on Nov. 5 ballot.
But when organizers realized they wouldn’t obtain the 20% registered voter threshold, Adelsman said, she let Poirier know they wouldn’t submit signatures before the Thursday, May 30, deadline.
Adelsman declined to provide the precise number of signatures the residents group obtained, but said it was in the thousands.
Adelsman ran for the Torrance City Council in 2022, but lost to Mattucci in the District 5 race, though it was close, with two often swapping the top position more and more ballots were processed.
The campaign to recall Mattucci, which began earlier this year, accused the outspoken councilmember of using social media to attack dissenting views and condemned him for leading an effort to remove noise monitoring at Torrance’s airport in 2020, among other criticisms.
Mattucci, for his part, said he would take the failed recall into consideration when governing during his last two years in office. He’ll be termed out in 2026.
“I was just elected for being me,” Mattucci said in a Friday, May 31, interview.
“I may not have the most eloquent way of delivering messages,” Mattucci said. “But my heart is in the right place and I have best interests in representing Torrance.”