Pelosi calls for Filner’s ouster

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, Thursday became the
latest prominent officeholder to call on San Diego Mayor Bob Filner to step
down in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.

The House minority leader made the call via a tweet to her nearly
368,000 followers, which read: “Mayor Filner is out of rehab, he should be out
of the Mayor's Office — should not subject San Diegans to pain & expense of a
recall.”

Last month, Pelosi said the mayor's fate should be left in the hands of
San Diegans.

“What goes on in San Diego is up to the people of San Diego,” she told
reporters at the time.

Filner was a 10-term congressman before he was elected mayor last
November, serving with Pelosi for many years in Washington.

Organizers of an effort to qualify a recall petition for the ballot are
scheduled to begin collecting signatures Sunday. They have until Sept. 26 and
must gather nearly 102,000 valid signatures to force a recall election that
would reportedly cost the city more than $3 million.

Numerous political and business figures have demanded Filner's
resignation instead, including all nine members of the City Council, former
Mayor Jerry Sanders and both of California's U.S senators.