Effort to Recall Gavin Newsom Nears Major Turning Point
With a deadline about seven weeks away, California activists working to stage a recall election of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom are 80 percent of the way to achieving the signatures necessary to force the vote.
Organizers said they have collected 1.2 million signatures, KUSI-TV reported Saturday.
State rules require that 1.5 million valid signatures be submitted by March 17 for a recall to be held.
“The people are being heard loud and clear, and it is not a matter of if we are going to reach our goal necessary that will trigger a recall election of Newsom, it is just when we cross the finish line,” Orrin Heatlie, a former Yolo County sheriff’s deputy who supports the recall effort, said in a statement, according to KQED-TV.
The group seeking the recall vote, which has set a goal of 2 million signatures by the deadline, reported that of those already submitted, 84 percent have been ruled valid.
“It’s absolutely gaining traction. We’re getting petitions from not only Republicans but from Democrats and independents,” Republican John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018 and is laying the groundwork for a possible run in 20222, told Fox News.
Cox noted that Newsom’s COVID-19 policies have been the catalyst that has brought out Californians to support the recall.
“This has just gone on too long — the mismanagement that has accompanied this pandemic,” he said.
California residents watch other states rebound and are frustrated that lockdowns are still being enforced upon them, Cox said.
“Small businesses are shut down, schools aren’t open still, even though they are across the country,” he said. “Democrat and Republican governors across the country are doing a much better job in dealing with this crisis than Mr. Newsom, and that’s really weighing on people.”
Former Assembly speaker and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, who is the honorary chairman of the pro-recall group Rescue California, said Newsom’s policies have created a bipartisan groundswell of anger.
“There’s no question when you talk to regular people, regardless of the party or without even knowing their politics, that frustration over the leadership of this state is broad-based,” the Republican said, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Even as the lockdowns were easing, that anger remained.
This pandemic has exposed a lot of politicians’ narcissism & Gavin Newsom had been one of the bigger stand outs. Fearing a recall, he’s denying science & data just to salvage his political career. https://t.co/RhTJ3MksYR
— Adnan Khan (@akhan1437) January 25, 2021
November’s incident in which Newsome dined at a swanky restaurant in spite of his strict lockdown rules helped fuel the campaign to recall him, said Seth Morrison, executive director of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a Republican group supporting the recall.
“He lost the moral authority to lead our state in the pandemic,” Morrison said
If the recall is successful, the vote would take place later this year.
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