WASHINGTON (RNS) A group spearheaded by two ministers has filed papers with the Louisiana secretary of state’s office to recall U.S. Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-New Orleans, who has been on the job only six weeks.

The recall effort is ostensibly a response to Cao’s two votes against the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which passed Congress last week and was signed into law Tuesday by President Obama.

But the Rev. Toris Young, one of the leaders of the effort, said the stimulus vote was only the “last straw,” and that the recall effort had been in the works for weeks. The pastor of Greater Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church in New Orleans, Young identified himself as president of the Louisiana Ministerial Alliance of Churches for All People.

The Recall Anh Cao Committee faces daunting odds. The effort has 180 days from its filing to gather 100,000 valid signatures from registered voters in the district — one-third of all district voters — in order to get a recall vote. And even if they succeed at that, and voters approve the recall, it appears that Congress would not accept the result.

According to a report to Congress last year prepared by Jack Maskell, a legislative attorney with the Congressional Research Service, “the United States Constitution does not provide for nor authorize the recall of United States officials such as United States Senators, Representatives to Congress, or the President or Vice President of the United States, and thus no United States Senator or Member of the House of Representatives has ever been recalled in the history of the United States.”

The Rev. Aubry Wallace of Marrero, La., who heads the recall committee, said they would face each challenge to their effort in turn but said flatly, “This is going to be a successful effort.” He said they have already gathered 8,000 signatures.

Jacques Berry, press secretary to Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, said that the office believes that Louisiana voters can recall members of Congress under the state recall law. “Because we elected them, we can recall them,” he said.

Cao, the first member of Congress from Vietnamese ancestry, said, “If they are allowed to do it by law, then that’s their right.” But, he added, “I am concentrating on the rebuilding of Louisiana, and I invite them to be part of my team and part of the solution.”