Early on, conventional wisdom pronounced that California’s Sept. 14 recall election would not succeed in ousting Gov. Gavin Newsom – which shows how out of touch work-at-home elites have been about the pain Californians endured under Newsom’s heavy-handed COVID edicts.
Closed schools, businesses shuttered while the governor dined at the French Laundry, high crime, and a $31 billion unemployment insurance fiasco have enraged voters already at wits’ end over the Golden State’s homeless situation and high crime rate.
EXCLUSIVE: We've obtained photos of Governor Gavin Newsom at the Napa dinner party he's in hot water over. The photos call into question just how outdoors the dinner was. A witness who took photos tells us his group was so loud, the sliding doors had to be closed. 10pm on @FOXLA
I no longer live in California – but I covered state politics for nearly three decades, which included the last successful gubernatorial recall. I have had reservations about the strategic value of a recall this close to the 2022 election. I feared that the victor, presumably a Republican, would be running for re-election as the Democratic Legislature worked to sabotage his re-election.
Still, if I were a California voter, I’d vote to boot Newsom in a heartbeat. I’ve come to think that if the recall fails, California’s hole just gets deeper.
“What you may see is not so much a personal vote against Gavin Newsom, but a vote on the direction California is going,” California political graybeard Joel Fox told me.
“I’m thinking – you know what? – vote for the recall as a protest because you don’t like California’s direction,” Fox added.
The RealClearPolitics polling average shows a slim plurality – 48% versus 46% -- of Golden State voters support the recall. If the margin stays this slim, turnout would determine the outcome. Given the Democrats’ enthusiasm deficit, Newsom will have to work to stay in office. That’s an amazing turnaround for an incumbent who first won office with 62 percent of the vote.
Opposition research guru Joe Rodota offered that if the recall wins and radio talk-show host Larry Elder or former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer were to win, “then you have ten months of contrast” after the new governor is sworn in. (Other GOP candidates include Caitlyn Jenner, former Rep. Doug Ose, and John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018.)
Even if “Democrats can override every veto, “ Rodota noted, “at least will be a conversation” and “two viewpoints presented.”
Former GOP Govs. Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian, Rodota noted, were able to use executive orders and the state’s line-item veto to get around Democratic lawmakers.
If the recall passes, Democrats who fight reforms could find themselves on unexpectedly shaky ground.
GOP consultant Kevin Spillane hasn’t decided how he would vote, but he did say he believes many California Republicans would relish the chance to vote for Elder because they would love to see a black Republican representing the party and the state.
Spillane also thinks Newsom made a big mistake trying to blame the recall on Trump and Republicans.
Don’t take his word for it. Consider the words of Christine Pelosi, the House Speaker’s daughter, who pushed for a party resolution to oppose Team Newsom’s labeling of the recall effort as “partisan.”
“That’s FALSE and offensive - I know Newsom voters and volunteers who signed the recall and told him so. Calling me a liar is a bad strategy!” the younger Pelosi tweeted in May.
“I want Gavin recalled just like I want (New York Gov.) Andrew Cuomo impeached, because they’re both terrible people and terrible governors who have hurt a lot of people who don’t deserve it,” said Spillane. And: “If Newsom is retained and elected, it’s going to get worse.”
Who is the better candidate? Anyone but Newsom, who has shown himself to be utterly unreliable.
As a candidate in 2018, Newsom campaign spokesman Dan Newman told the San Francisco Chronicle said that despite Newsom’s personal opposition to capital punishment, Newsom “recognizes that California voters have spoken on the issue and, if elected governor, he’d respect the will of the electorate by following and implementing the law.”
Within weeks of taking the oath of office, Newsom announced a moratorium on exercising the state’s death penalty.
Of course, he won plaudits for the reversal among left-leaning commentators. It’s gross really. With a 62% victory in 2018, Newsom didn’t need to mislead the public. Surely he could have won the election without saying he would enforce a law he had not intent on enforcing.
So why did Newsom tell California voters he would act in a way which he later proclaimed violated deeply-held beliefs that defined what sort of man he is? Perhaps because it cost him nothing.
Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Chapman Center on Citizen Leadership.
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We must not forget his lack of concern for public safety and the crime rate going sky high. We have to protect ourselves by voting yes to get Newsom recalled.