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Recall Talk Grows for Newsom in California as Governors Are Under Siege - The New York Times

Recall Talk Grows for Newsom in California as Governors Are Under Siege - The New York Times

Recall Talk Grows for Newsom in California as Governors Are Under Siege - The New York Times
Feb 25, 2021 2 mins, 40 secs

Gavin Newsom, lavishly praising his handling of the pandemic.

SACRAMENTO — Long before Orrin Heatlie filed papers to recall Gavin Newsom, he knew the odds were against unseating the suave ex-mayor of San Francisco who ascended to become California’s governor.

Newsom is not the only governor who has hit a political rough patch.

Dane Strother, a Democratic media consultant in California whose clients include governors and mayors across the country, said governors “are in an untenable position.”.

Even if California’s recall attempt fails, Mr.

For the recall to move forward, proponents must gather 1,495,809 valid signatures from registered voters by March 17 — enough to equal 12 percent of the votes cast in the most recent election for governor.

Newsom be recalled, and if the recall passes, who should complete his remaining year or so as governor.

“I’m focused on the vaccine issue,” he recently told reporters who asked about the recall effort.

Newsom’s team, however, has noted that recall attempts are not unusual in California: petitions for removal from office have been filed against every governor in the last 61 years.

Only one recall has succeeded — in 2003, when post-9/11 fears and rolling blackouts stemming from energy deregulation helped Republicans persuade voters to fire Gray Davis and hire Arnold Schwarzenegger, who subsequently faced his own blitz of attempted recalls.

“Some people estimate we could have 10 times as many candidates as in 2003,” he said, noting that such a special election would cost an estimated $100 million.

But the recall effort also has tapped into a broad, bipartisan unease as the virus has claimed some 50,000 lives in the state.

Newsom has awkwardly constrained 40 million Californians in the name of safety, Republican activists have sought to energize their base.

Since then, records show, the recall attempt has acquired significant backing from Rescue California, a parallel organization built during the Gray Davis recall and revived by the state’s former Republican Party chairman, Tom Del Beccaro, among others.

That money — modest for a statewide campaign — is paying for professional signature gatherers and a campaign to solicit signatures via direct mail, said Dave Gilliard, a Sacramento political consultant who worked on the Davis recall and is now advising Rescue California.

Of the “10 reasons to recall Gavin Newsom” listed on Rescue California’s website, seven are pandemic-related.

“He’s closing businesses, he’s lessened pedophilia to a misdemeanor and he’s outlawed gas-powered vehicles and I don’t think people even realize,” she said, reciting three false assertions that nonetheless have become gospel among some recall proponents

Newsom, she said, “has got to go or California is going to be run into the ground.”

Mike Madrid, a former state Republican Party political director who co-founded the Lincoln Project, said that even if the pandemic ebbs, that partisan zeal could propel the recall onto a ballot

“Right now, we are so polarized that you could basically sell a Republican voter anything you want as long as it takes down a Democrat,” he said, “and vice versa.”

“Look, Newsom came into office dealing with wildfires and spent the past year trying to handle a pandemic — he’s basically trying to govern in the Book of Revelation,” said David Townsend, a Democratic consultant who specializes in ballot measures

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