Efforts to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom well before the next governor’s race in November 2022 have recently gained traction in California as residents have grown frustrated with his draconian response to the pandemic and his glaring hypocrisy in violating his own orders.
Rescue California 2021 is leading the campaign and has gathered 800,000 of the required 1,495,709 signatures needed to recall the governor. The campaign was bolstered when the deadline to retrieve the signatures was extended to March 17, 2021 because COVID-19 was said to hinder the efforts. Rescue California contends it will likely need close to two million signatures, since some signatures are likely to be deemed invalid.
The petition to recall Newsom was in fact not prompted by the pandemic but was instead focused on Newsom’s left-wing policies. Served to Newsom on February 20, it reads,
The grounds for this recall are as Follows: Governor Newsom has implemented laws which are detrimental to the citizens of this state and our way of life. Laws he endorsed favor foreign nationals, in our country illegally, over that of our own citizens. People in this state suffer the highest taxes in the nation, the highest homelessness rates, and the lowest quality of life as a result. He has imposed sanctuary state status and fails to enforce immigration laws. He unilaterally over-ruled the will of the people regarding the death penalty. He seeks to impose additional burdens on our state by the following; removing the protections of Proposition 13, rationing our water use, increasing taxes and restricting parental rights. Having no other recourse, we the people have come together to take this action, remedy these misdeeds and prevent further injustices.
The recall efforts did not gain traction until more recently as residents became incensed by Newsom’s handling of the pandemic. Californians were initially pleased with Newsom’s response to the so-called public health crisis, notes Anne Dunsmore, campaign manager and finance director of Rescue California 2021, but subsequent health orders that shut down schools and businesses, as well as an unemployment benefits fraud scandal, turned residents against Newsom.
“Closing the beaches and closing the parks really was the beginning, that I saw on the ground, of the beginning of the end for him, as far as people taking the recall stuff seriously,” Dunsmore said.
And Governor Newsom’s expensive dinner at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, which violated several of his own orders, has breathed new life into the recall efforts as citizens begrudge the governor’s hypocrisy.
“I think it came to a head with the French Laundry. And that misstep on his part, made everybody more aware and more upset about the things that he had already done that were way off like the random closures, the random rolling blackouts … the extreme nature of some of the bills that he was signing, and the constant pulling over to the far-left,” Dunsmore said.
Harmeet Dhillon, co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association, contends California residents are fed up with Newsom’s double standards for him and his wealthy friends versus his constituents.
“People all over California in both parties being very angry at the governor, particularly with his hypocrisy, particular with the fact that his children get to get educated and everybody else’s largely do not in most urban areas, these are the things that are fueling discontent here in California,” Dhillon said. “The hypocrisy of allowing lobbyists secured exemptions — like film crews get to operate, but restaurants don’t get to operate — these types of inequities are really fueling the energy behind this grassroots movement.”
According to Dunsmore, the recall effort has not been driven by a red tide or a blue tide, but rather a “citizen tide” resulting from ire over the governor’s handling of the pandemic.
The recall effort has recently received a notable infusion of cash from donors such as Prov 3:9 LLC, which donated $500,000 to the campaign, and Sequoia Capital’s Douglas Leone, who donated $100,000.
Thomas Liu, listed as the manager of Prov 3:9, explained his donation to Politico. “We have our beliefs in terms of the direction the state needs to go, and we felt that this effort was worthy of our contribution,” he said.
Politico observes the large donations indicate the recall effort could have a chance.
“Statewide campaigns require lots of money, usually in the millions of dollars, and political observers have been closely watching to see if major donors step up for the recall effort,” Politico writes. “Now the first major sum has landed, bolstering the recall’s chances.”
Fox News notes California is no stranger to governor recalls. Since 1911, Californians have tried to recall their governor 55 times, with success only in 2003 against Governor Gray Davis, who lost his special election to Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is believed that Representative Darrell Issa’s $2 million donation to Davis’ recall campaign is what contributed to the campaign’s success.
