Larry Elder Left Off of Newly Released California Recall Election List, Files Suit (Updated)
As Elder campaign works on getting listed, 41 other candidates officially start the campaign phase of the recall process.
Back in 2003, the California recall election of Grey Davis had over 100 candidates vying for the state’s top political spot.
The 2021 recall election will have substantially fewer options for potentially replacing Gov. Gavin Newsom, which may be good news for Californians tired of politicized drama.
California’s next governor could be a retired homicide detective, a marijuana reform advocate or a former mayor. Maybe the job will filled by a social media influencer, a tech executive-turned-pastor or a 1976 Olympic champion.
Candidates fitting those descriptions and many more are on a state list released Saturday of 41 people who filed the required paperwork to run in the Sept. 14 recall election that could remove first-term Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The lineup of candidates runs from the famous to the anonymous and includes 21 Republicans, eight Democrats, one Libertarian, nine independents and two Green Party members.
However, there is still drama to be had. One well–known name is mysteriously missing from a preliminary list that was just released: Conservative talk show host Larry Elder. Legal Insurrection readers will note that we reported on his entrance to the race, which was greeted with enthusiasm by independent conservatives through the state.
Elder is now disputing the list.
The official list of who’s running in California’s recall election of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom remained unsettled Sunday, with conservative talk radio host Larry Elder maintaining he should be included and state officials giving no details as to why he wasn’t.
Secretary of State spokeswoman Jenna Dresner said all candidates who didn’t qualify were told why, but a spokesperson for Elder’s campaign said she did not receive any notification. The spokesperson, Ying Ma, said Elder submitted voter signatures from three counties and the campaign assumed the state hadn’t finished adding them together. Candidates must pay a nearly $4,200 filing fee or submit 7,000 signatures.
Dresner did not answer whether Elder still had a chance to be included on the final list of candidates set for release Wednesday.
The Elder campaign believes his name will appear on an updated list being issued in the next few days.
Ying Ma, an Elder campaign spokeswoman, said she expected him to be on the final list of candidates issued next week. “Our campaign submitted every document required by the Secretary of State and the Los Angeles County Registrar” to qualify for the ballot, she said in a statement.
It wasn’t immediately clear what requirement Elder failed to meet.
There was an on-line meeting of California’s conservative activists that focused on the recall election. Elder’s candidacy was greeted with great enthusiasm for a variety of reasons, including the fact he hails from Southern California and has a libertarian bent.
Should California officials be targeting his campaign already, that would be astonishing. It would also indicate how much the “Little Swamp” of Sacramento is concerned about this particular candidate. It would be hard to imagine a better endorsement for Elder.
Update — Elder Files Suit:
Elder announced he filed suit Monday, “seeking an order from a court in Sacramento that would require Secretary of State Shirley Weber to list Elder as a candidate on the final certified list of candidates, scheduled to be issued Wednesday,” reports KTLA:
The Republican said in a statement late Monday that he filed all the necessary paperwork to qualify for a slot on the ballot, including over 300 pages of tax returns that are required to become a candidate. But the secretary of state’s office did not include Elder on a preliminary list of 41 candidates last weekend, saying he filed incomplete information on those returns.
Elder’s campaign said he sued Monday, seeking an order from a court in Sacramento that would require Secretary of State Shirley Weber to list Elder as a candidate on the final certified list of candidates, scheduled to be issued Wednesday.
“We’ve complied with everything the secretary of state has required of us,” said Elder, a popular voice on the political right whose show is nationally syndicated. “The politicians in Sacramento know I’m the only candidate who can beat Gavin Newsom. They are afraid, and they are using whatever shenanigans they can to try to trip me up. It won’t work.”
“Frankly, this action by the secretary of state is not simply unfair and absurd but a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent,” said Elder, who also is an attorney.
Meanwhile, the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday added another name to the list, making it 42 replacement candidates in the Sept. 14 contest. It wasn’t immediately clear why Democrat Armando “Mando” Perez-Serrato was a late addition.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
This is to get Elder supporters to write him in. This will take votes from other viable candidates, and assure too few votes to get rid of Newsom.
That’s impossible. The vote to recall Newsom is yes or no. There’s nothing to write in, and it makes no difference who’s on the ballot to replace him. If “No” wins then the second ballot doesn’t even get looked at; if “Yes” wins then he’s out regardless of what happens on the second ballot.
Please take the time to understand the process before posting misinformation. Newsom is not running, he either survives the first question which is to recall, yes or no, The second question is who will replace him if recalled.
“…which was greeted with enthusiasm by independent conservatives through the state.”
Um,
what’s an “independent conservative?”
Its people who adhere to conservative principals (lower taxes, smaller government, personal liberty– for starters) but don’t adhere to the Republican party because they are to quick to abandon these principals when the going gets tough…..
You know, like your coach said: “When the going gets tough,the tough get going”.
When the going gets tough…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zc0BI7T1LA
Not a Republican
People who vote reliably conservative but are registered as independents, not Republicans.
me.
registered independent as I am beholden to no party.
De-listed as a candidate. De-platformed from social media.
Different page; same playbook.
1976 Olympic champion.
Ahh… a 1976 Olympic Champion now Transgender, who cut off his cajones and rocket and would put his 10 year old daughters clothes on… and thought it was funny when she walked in on him…still…
There, fixed it for you
Did he cut off his junk???????
This is the Peoples’ Democrat Republic of Alta California. The Democrat Party will decide if Newsom will be recalled before the polls open. If he is to be recalled, the Democrat party will decide who will be allowed to run to replace him, and decide who will win; also before the polls open. We cannot vote Democrats out.
Subotai Bahadur
Not with your negative attitude. You have already thrown in the towel. No wonder we have a majority of Democrats, I bet you don’t even vote because you think it is useless.
second time in this thread you’ve acted like a complete dick.
1) I have been eligible to vote for over half a century. I have never missed voting in any election where I live.
2) This is the recognition that the social and political contract that held this country together since my birth is no longer functioning, and we are in a different political system than then. There is no way to predict what will result, but the odds based on human history are such as to make pessimism rational.
Subotai Bahadur
A CALIFORNIA judge just ordered Secretary of State to Larry Elder on the ballot. So much for your theory.
I am surprised, with the caveat that the decision may be appealed.
Subotai Bahadur
Larry is off the plantation and must be punished for leaving according to Democrats.
“state officials giving no details as to why he wasn’t…. It wasn’t immediately clear what requirement Elder failed to meet.”
Sounds too familiar. The Facebook and Twitter guys aren’t running the elections department, are they?
As I understand the PR from the Elder “campaign”, they were unsure whether they redacted information on the tax returns which was required to be unredacted, or whether they failed to redact information on the tax returns which was supposed to be redacted. The jpg I saw on-line of the paperwork from the SecState’s office only referenced a redaction problem without specificity. How helpful, it appears to fall under the old rule: “Never give a sucker an even break.”
Either way, the Elder people claim that state law allows the SecState to make minor corrections to submitted applications so as to put the applicant on the ballot and the SecState’s office is refusing to do so and refusing to allow Elder to rectify the issue (if it actually existed on filing). So the court suit asking the courts intervene and order the SecState to make the correction.
Elder is a danger to California’s Marxist power structure, and must be kept out of the competition (if there’s anyway they can do it). It wouldn’t take a whole lot to get the largest number of vote in a contest with 40-some clowns — and being both black and conservative, and likely to draw substantial support from both directions, Elder would have a strong possibility of winning.
The courts shall have to take his suit under advisement, and then review all the documentation submitted, and validate it, and then consider what it all means. At the end of the day, after the election is held and certified, the court will come to the decision that he should have been included on the ballot….but now it’s moot. So sorry.
BLACK LIVES MATTER unless you are a Conservative Knee Grow.