It’s happening!
California voters will vote on whether to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and replace him with another candidate in an election that has been officially set for Sept. 14.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified the gubernatorial recall petition earlier Thursday, prompting Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis to set an election date between 60 and 80 days from the date of certification.While the signatures have only just been officially certified, Weber announced in late April that the organizer of the recall petition had collected more than the approximately 1.5 million validated signatures required.During a 30-day period, voters who signed the recall petition could request their signatures be removed, but only 43 voters did so, Weber announced last week. More than 1.7 million signatures supporting the recall were verified.
The vote will come in two parts:
1) Voting YES or NO on recalling Newsom.
2) Selecting a replacement candidate.
If the YES votes exceed 50%, the replacement candidate receiving the most votes is the next governor of the Golden State. Hopefuls are already lining up.
California law does not limit how many candidates can run in a recall. According to CalMatters, a public interest journalism nonprofit, 55 individuals have already filed a statement of intention to run….The campaign against him picked up some steam amid frustration with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, closed schools and complex panoply of shifting public health rules imposed to confront the pandemic.”I am ready to lead this recall and begin the California comeback to clean up our streets, cut taxes on the middle class, and reopen our schools,” former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, who is among the Republicans in the running, said on Twitter.
The Democrats moved by the election to help the only Democrat who will be running.
The date is much earlier than originally planned. Early timelines pinned the recall sometime in November when voters generally anticipate elections, but state officials sped through a cost review process and legislative Democrats moved up the timeline in an effort to ride Newsom’s rising approval ratings.Newsom’s “best opportunity to beat this reckless recall,” Democratic State Sen. Steve Glazer wrote more than a month ago, “is to have an early election.”
However, Newsom is now suing the state’s top elections official in an attempt to get his affiliation with the Democratic Party on the ballot for the September election.
According to the lawsuit, the governor’s elections lawyer did not include Newsom’s party affiliation when filing paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office 16 months ago. When Newsom’s team noticed the oversight in June, they asked Secretary of State Shirley Weber to correct the mistake.She refused and, according to the lawsuit, “stated she cannot accept [his party preference] without a court order.”…“The Secretary of State’s office has a ministerial duty to accept timely filed documents,” Weber’s office said in a statement. “Acceptance of filings beyond a deadline requires judicial resolution.”
This series of moves could backfire on the Democrats. The Republicans and Independents who signed the recall are far more motivated to vote to recall Newsom. And since the Democrats have put all their election eggs in the Newsom basket, Democrats who want someone other than Newsom will likely have options on the ballot that will appeal.
The tactic also fails to account Newsom’s tendency toward “French Laundry” moments, in which he applies a double standard favorable to himself and his politically-connected friends. One of those close to September 14 could truly move the dial for a recall and a new governor.
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