California Recall: All You Need to Know About Attempting to Recall Gavin Newsom

California Recall: All You Need to Know About Attempting to Recall Gavin Newsom

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Recall leaders said Wednesday night that they had well exceeded the target and had submitted more than 2.1 million signatures to provincial officials. But it is now up to the officials who have until April 29 to verify the signatures and then report their results to the Secretary of State in California.

A: At this point, it seems pretty likely. Newsom’s sudden flash of media interviews – and his vow to fight the recall – underscore that his team takes the recall threat very seriously. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. And so far the validity rate of the signature is very high – another reason why it probably qualifies. The latest report by the Foreign Minister in early February showed that 83.7% of the signatures checked so far by provincial officials were valid. The organizers also hired a third-party firm to verify signatures before they were submitted, eliminating many duplicates up front.

Q: If eligible, how quickly would the recall land on the ballot?

A: No one has a good answer to that yet, because there are many procedural steps that need to be completed before the lieutenant governor would officially announce the recall election. But sources on both sides of the call expect it to end up on the ballot between August and December. First, there is a series of next steps.

After the provincial election officials finish verifying signatures by the end of April, the foreign minister has until May to report to the provinces on whether the recall qualifies. Thereafter, each voter who has signed a revocation petition has 30 working days to reconsider and withdraw their signature. After that, provincial officials conduct a second verification process to determine if there are still enough signatures. If the repeal continues, the California Department of Finance and Secretary of State will propose a cost estimate that will be sent to the chairman of the State Joint Budget Committee, Newsom, Lieutenant Government Eleni Kounalakis and Secretary of State Shirley Weber. . The budget committee has 30 working days to review the estimate. Following Weber’s final signing, Kounalakis will have to set a date for a by – election that is no earlier than 60 days from that point and no later than 80 days.

Q: What would voters see on the ballot if they qualified?

A: The voters of the state will be asked two questions. First, they want to vote “yes” or “no” on the recall of Newsom. And two, who should replace him – a question that will likely be followed by a very long list of names, just as in 2003, when Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, replaced California’s former Democrat Gray Davis, a Democrat. has.

Q: Can Newsom enter his own name in the run for Question No. 2 as a backup plan?

A: No. He was banned from doing so under state electoral law.

Question: Newsom was elected in 2018 with almost 62% of the vote in one of the most liberal states in the country. How did he end up in this predicament?

A: This is actually the sixth time that Newsom’s opponents are trying to recall him, demonstrating the polarized climate in America, even in a blue state like California. Early on, the proponents of memories were most focused on their ideological differences with the governor. The repeal petition, written before the pandemic began, argues that Newsom fails to adequately address the state’s high taxes, immigration, large homelessness, lack of affordable housing and wildfires. But the gathering clashed last summer with anger over the pandemic, which is attracting a broader group of Californians who were angry about Newsom’s restrictive approach to fighting the virus.

Q: Did Newsom have a more restrictive approach to managing the pandemic than other governors? Why is so much anger directed at him?

A: Definitely. He introduced the country’s first nationwide home order last March and then in early December last year another series of home businesses – based on the capacity of the intensive care unit in different regions of the state. Earlier, he angered some Orange County residents by temporarily shutting down beaches. Newsom has also been repeatedly sued by advocates for religious freedom due to his early restrictions on church services, and he has lost some of the cases at the Supreme Court. The recall also drew in part a broader base of support because so many business owners believed Newsom’s restrictions were economically crippling and sometimes arbitrary. The West Coast districts also opened slowly, despite Newsom’s efforts to accelerate reopening. Newsom became the most visible target for all the anger.

Q: Why was his visit to the French laundromat in Napa Valley such a big deal?

A: There is nothing that voters hate more than hypocrisy of their leaders. And to his opponents, Newsom looked hypocritical and elitist when he attended the 50th birthday dinner of a longtime friend, who is a lobbyist, at the French laundromat last November. At the time, he asked residents to stay home and avoid social gatherings with people outside their household. For many Californians who were already frustrated with the restrictions, it appears that Newsom is playing by a different set of rules when he visits the restaurant. He repeatedly apologized, including during a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper who asked him bluntly, “What did you think?” Newsom said: “I have not made a mistake before or since.”

Q: Who is behind the recall attempt?

A: The main proponent of the recall is a retired sergeant of the sheriff, Orrin Heatlie, with 124 others who have filed the petition. His grassroots group, California Patriot Coalition – Recall Governor Newsom, has a strong focus on collecting signatures and has worked closely with another group called Rescue California … Remember Gavin Newsom, who raised a significant amount of money for the effort. The second group included California GOP heavyweights, including longtime consultant Anne Dunsmore and former California Republican Party chairman Tom Del Beccaro. Both the California State Republican Party and the Republican National Committee have made large donations to support the effort. Other leading funders include John Kruger, Orange County entrepreneur, Geoff Palmer and venture capitalist Douglas Leone.

Q: What are the most important criteria to check to determine if the recall will succeed or fail?

A: It’s important to remember that Democrats are now almost two-to-one more than Republicans, giving Newsom a built-in advantage in the ballot box – if he can get the Democrats to challenge and defend him. After the holidays, when anger over the California pandemic was at a boiling point, about 52% of likely voters in California approved Newsom’s performance in a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California (a 64% drop) last May). But to return, 50% of California voters must vote for it. In the poll released in February, only 43% of likely voters rejected Newsom, and that could improve as more people are vaccinated and the virus declines. By comparison, about 7 out of ten voters rejected Davis shortly before he was recalled with 55% of the vote.

Question: Who can expect us to replace Newsom if the recall qualifies?

A: There will probably be more than 100 names on the list – if not hundreds of names – because it is not expected to be very difficult to vote. The most important Republicans in the mix are Newsom’s former opponent, John H. Cox, who defeated Newsom by about 24 points in 2018, and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence of former president Donald Trump, also teased a potential run during a recent appearance at the Conservative political action conference in Orlando, which could provoke Trump voters in California. (Both Cox and Faulconer plan to challenge Newsom when he is eligible for re-election in 2022). Given the cheap submission fee and the expected low entry bar, the list can become a pretty wild cast.

Q: What is Newsom doing to stop the recall?

A: To begin with, after largely shaking it off and focusing on his duties as governor, he now had a more dedicated attitude – he conducted a series of personal interviews to try to define his opponents. Democrats launched a new effort – Stop the Republican recall – a day before the signatures were due to appear earlier this week, and Newsom referred to the recallers as’ anti-mask and anti-wax extremists’ and ‘pro-Trump forces who want to overthrow the last election and opposed much of what we did to fight the pandemic. ‘

President Joe Biden is against the recall along with many California Democrats in Washington. As Newsom focuses on getting Californians vaccinated in the coming months, you should expect many prominent Golden State Democrats to vigorously defend his record as governor as they work to redefine his image. Newsom’s current strategy was summed up in his tweet on March 15: “I will not be distracted by this biased, Republican reminder – but I will fight it.”

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