The campaign to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom reportedly has enough signatures to prompt a recall vote on the unpopular governor.
Rescue California, chaired by Tom Del Beccaro — the former chair of the California Republican Party — is leading the recall effort. The petition to recall Newsom requires 1,495,709 signatures, but the group contends it will need close to two million before the March 17 deadline to account for signatures that are likely to be deemed invalid.
“EVERYONE: We have over 1.5 mill raw signatures but they are not all verified,” tweeted del Beccaro. “My message is that 1.5m sounds great but is NOT ENOUGH. To ensure qualification we need 1.9 million.”
Efforts to recall Newsom have been ongoing for more than a year, but did not gain traction until more recently when Californians became incensed by Newsom’s failed COVID response, including health orders that have hurt schools and businesses, as well as an unemployment benefits fraud scandal.
“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.
Rescue California’s website lists 10 reasons to recall Newsom, most of which are pandemic-related.
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But the petition was not prompted by the pandemic. Served to Governor Newsom in February 2020, the petition actually focused on the negative impact of Newsom’s left-wing policies on the state:
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.
Dunsmore contends Newsom’s French Laundry scandal, in which Newsom attended a party at an upscale restaurant in violation of limits on such gatherings, also breathed new life into recall efforts as Californians begrudged 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.
Notable donations have also helped to keep recall efforts alive. In December, Prov 3:9 LLC donated $500,000 to the campaign and Sequoia Capital’s Douglas Leone donated $100,000. At the time, Politico said the large donations were indicative that the recall effort had 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 wrote. “Now the first major sum has landed, bolstering the recall’s chances.”
Recalls are nothing new in California, as noted on the California secretary of state’s website. There have been 178 recall attempts of state elected officials since 1913, according to the site, of which 10 have collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Of those 10, six elected officials have been recalled. And Fox News reminded readers that Californians have attempted to recall their governor 55 times, with success only in 2003 against Democrat Gray Davis, who lost to Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Los Angeles Times reports that several Republicans have already expressed interest in participating in a recall election. These include former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox, who lost to Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial race.
As noted by Breitbart News, some Democrats have even jumped aboard the recall train.
