OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:33 PM – Monday, February 26, 2024
A recall attempt against Governor Gavin Newsom was defeated back in 2021, but his detractors are not giving up just yet.
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“Governor Newsom has abandoned the state to advance his presidential ambitions, leaving behind a $68 billion budget deficit and a public safety, immigration, and education crisis,” Rescue California said.
A notice of intent to recall was served to the governor on Monday morning. Rescue California, a conservative activist group, was the organization behind the initiative.
However, on Monday, Newsom did not seem very concerned and utilized the occasion to raise money for his campaign. Since he entered office in 2019, critics who are tired of California policies that “favor criminals,” among other issues, have tried to recall him six other times. Out of them, five were not eligible to be on the ballot. The one that did result in a recall election occurred on September 14th, 2021, yet, it was rejected by the state’s overwhelming Democrat majority at 62% to 38%.
“Earlier today, the same Trump Republicans who led the recall effort against me in 2021 announced they are launching another recall campaign against me this year,” Newsom said on Monday, referencing 2024 presidential front-runner Donald Trump. “We beat them once—handily—and we’ll do it again if we must. But I can’t do it alone.”
Recall campaigns for governors are not uncommon. Jerry Brown, a fellow Democrat and Newsom’s predecessor, had five recall attempts. However, none of them were successful enough to make it to the ballot.
Democrat Gray Davis was the only recent governor of California to be recalled back in 2003, receiving a 55% vote. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor and Hollywood star who was elected in his place, withstood seven recall attempts, none of which were allowed to go to vote.
In order to qualify for the ballot in 2021, supporters of the last Newsom recall need to gather enough signatures, “around 1.5 million,” to match 12% of the total votes cast for governor in the previous election.
“It’s very difficult—intentionally difficult—to recall the governor,” Larry Gerston said, who is a professor emeritus of politics at San Jose State University. “And it’s very expensive—it’ll cost millions to collect enough signatures.”
Advocates for the proposed recall campaign list the numerous issues besetting the Golden State on their website, including exorbitant housing costs, rising rates of homelessness despite billions of dollars being spent to combat it, $3 billion in free health care coverage for undocumented immigrants despite a nearly $70 billion budget deficit, and an increase in violent and retail crimes that critics attribute to the governor’s supported criminal justice reforms.
The manager of the recall campaign, Anne Dunsmore, stated that the initiative would not interfere with Republican contests and that it is primarily driven by volunteers who were involved in the previous Newsom recall that was put to a vote.
Rather, she claimed, it would compel Newsom to distribute his political funds in order to protect his position. Newsom has been advocating for the Proposition 1 bond initiative for mental health as well as for Democrat candidates in other states. She mentioned that those who were angry with Newsom had signed 2.3 million signatures the previous time around for the campaign.
“We’re better prepared, we have all the resources we had last time,” Dunsmore said. “It’ll drain more money from their coffers. He’s also spread himself thin—he’s paying for Prop. 1 and campaigning for people in battleground states.”
In response to harsh criticism directed at the governor over COVID-19 public health regulations that imposed unwanted restrictions on individuals, businesses, and churches, the Newsom recall movement qualified for the 2021 ballot. The governor fueled the recall movement by dining at a posh Napa restaurant with friends shortly after hypocritically advising Californians to stay at home, stay away from social events, and wear masks to protect the virus from spreading.
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