California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber announced on Monday that the effort to recall Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom reached the requisite number of signatures to get on the ballot this year.
“This now triggers the next phase of the recall process, a 30-business-day period in which voters may submit written requests to county Registrars of Voters to remove their names from the recall petition,” Weber said in a statement. “A recall election will be held unless a sufficient number of signatures are withdrawn.”
Fox News reported 1,626,042 signatures were submitted and verified, far surpassing the required 1,495,709.
Voters have a 30-business-day window to request their signatures be removed from the recall petition, according to CBS. State Democrats are pushing an effort called “Stop the Steal” to encourage people to remove their names from the petition, but the Daily Wire observed that even Newsom’s team believes it is unlikely the recall can be stopped.
“The People of California have done what the politicians thought would be impossible,” said Orrin Heatlie, lead organizer of Recall Gavin 2020. “Our work is just beginning. Now the real campaign is about to commence.”
Newsom himself seemed not to take the recall effort seriously until it became evident that the petition was nearing the signature threshold. Last month, the governor established a political committee to begin raising money to defend his seat, a move the Associated Press called “the strongest acknowledgment to date that he expects to be on the ballot this year.”
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Newsom tweeted at the time, “I won’t be distracted by this partisan Republican recall — but I will fight it[.] There is too much at stake.”
On Monday, Newsom acknowledged the recall hitting the necessary signatures in a fundraising email to supporters, CBS News reported.
The governor also took to Twitter to defend his record, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“This Republican recall threatens our values and seeks to undo the important progress we’ve made — from fighting COVID, to helping struggling families, protecting our environment, and passing common-sense gun violence solutions,” Newsom said. “There’s too much at stake.”
But it is Newsom’s own left-wing record that prompted the first recall efforts in February 2020, well before the pandemic provided further fodder for the cause. The petitioners’ grievances included “laws he endorsed favor foreign nationals, in our country illegally, over that of our own citizens,” “highest taxes in the nation,” “highest homelessness rates,” “rationing water use,” and “restricting parental rights,” among other radically progressive policies.
Still, it was Newsom’s failed coronavirus response that breathed new life into the petition efforts.
“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,” said Anne Dunsmore, campaign manager and finance director of Rescue California, one of the groups behind the recall campaign.
Rescue California’s website lists 10 reasons to recall Newsom, most of which are pandemic-related.
Newsom’s French Laundry scandal, which highlighted the governor’s hypocrisy, also turned Californians away from Newsom.
“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.
And while Newsom and his supporters have painted the recall campaign as an extremist, Republican effort, recall organizers say 38 percent of petition signatures come from independents, Democrats, and people who did not list their political affiliation, the Guardian reported.
Ten candidates have filed intentions to run in a potential recall election, CBS News writes, seven of which are Republicans.
According to the Daily Wire, former Olympian and transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner has announced interest in running for governor. Jenner reportedly filed the paperwork to run for governor of California last week and has unveiled a new website.
“California has been my home for nearly 50 years,” Jenner said in a statement. “I came here because I knew that anyone, regardless of their background or station in life, could turn their dreams into a reality. But for the past decade, we have seen the glimmer of the Golden State reduced by one-party rule that places politics over progress and special interests over people. Sacramento needs an honest leader with a clear vision.”
Other Republican candidates include former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, former Representative Doug Ose, and businessman John Cox.
Of course, whether Newsom can actually be unseated remains to be seen. As observed by Fox News, Californians have attempted to recall their governor 55 times, with success only in 2003 against Democrat Gray Davis, who lost to Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Recent polls show 40 percent of California voters support recalling the governor, according to the LA Times.
And though 40 percent may not be enough to recall Newsom, “the success of the recall campaign in gathering enough valid signatures for a special election delivers a blow to Newsom,” the Times wrote.
