Campaign to Recall Newsom Desperate to Stay Relevant
One thing you can always count on Republicans to do is to blame their opponents for doing the odious things they themselves are doing.
Hence it should surprise nobody that several bills being considered by the legislature are being portrayed as attempts to suppress the will of voters who signed petitions calling for the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
https://twitter.com/VictoriaTaft/status/1381766703269474306?s=20
Fact check: The legislation in question, which would require disclosure of information on petition signers would not go into effect until January 2022.
The reliably right wing Federalist even went so far as to compare these bills with Georgia’s twenty-first century version of Jim Crow.
The bill to turn recall petitions into Soviet-style dissident lists signed by more than two million people now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee for final approval before consideration by the full chamber.
Harmeet Dhillon, who runs a major San Francisco-based law firm and launched the Center for American Liberty, immediately threatened California lawmakers with legal action over the new legislation.
Major corporations, which fed hysteria over mild election reforms in Georgia with boycotts, have gone silent on California legislators in pursuit of actual voter intimidation.
https://twitter.com/RealKiraDavis/status/1381674661524594688?s=20
Proposing changes to petitions and how signatures are gathered is an annual event in the California State legislature. Those few that make it through the legislature are usually vetoed by whatever Governor is holding the office.
The most common change involves a prohibition on paying by signature for petition efforts.
From CalMatters:
A prohibition on per-signature payments has been floated for years. Advocates contend that paying signature-gatherers by the name encourages them to mislead potential petition signers about the issues before them.
However, every recent governor has vetoed at least one version of the proposal. When he vetoed a 2019 ban on per-signature payments, Newsom said, “While I appreciate the intent of this legislation to incentivize grassroots support for the initiative process, I believe this measure could make the qualification of many initiatives cost-prohibitive, thereby having the opposite effect.”
There are two other changes to the process in the offing, introduced by Redondo Beach State Senator Ben Allen:
Senate Constitutional Amendment 3 would make successful recalls more difficult by placing the name of the targeted official on the ballot as a successor candidate.
Under current law, voters are given two issues to decide — whether the official should be ousted and which of the successor candidates should be elected instead…
...Senate Bill 752, would require that before voters signed petitions for a recall, an initiative or a referendum, they would have to certify that they had read a list of the proposed measure’s top financial contributors.
All these bills are considered long-shots, and none of them have anything to do with the effort to Recall Governor Newsom.
The hand-wringing over these proposed changes to the petition process is really about trying to keep those who did sign the recall petitions engaged… But just in case....
https://twitter.com/recallgavin2020/status/1380923675902308355?s=20
Although the recall won’t be certified for another few days (April 19), it will likely qualify for the ballot. And the question is moot as long as the pandemic remains in decline.
Recent polling shows only 40% of voters approve of a recall, and the orchestrated reopening of the state isn’t helping things.
Even perennial opportunist Carl DeMaio knows this. His Reform California Twitter feed went silent on the Newsom recall on March 19th. (Now they’re focused on recalling school board members…)
California’s #COVID19 positivity rate at 1.5% is the lowest nationally, facts that Gov Newsom felt obliged to Tweet yesterday.
Golden State Democrats have successfully discouraged candidates with name recognition from entering the parallel contest to name a successor for the Governor should the recall get more than 50% of the vote.
Republicans, on the other hand, have a circus waiting to happen over the next few months.
Among those considering (or announced for) a run are:
Doug Ose (Republican) - Businessman
Caitlyn Jenner (Republican) - Actress/Activist
John Cox (Republican) - Businessman
Major Williams (Republican) - Entrepreneur
Kevin Faulconer (Republican) - Businessman
Jenny Rae Le Roux (Republican) - Management Consultant
Sam Gallucci (Republican) - Pastor
There are three non-affiliated candidates running.
Mary "Mary Carey" Cook (No Party Preference) - Adult Film Actress
Mike Cernovich (No Party Preference) - Right Wing Troll, Commentator
Angelyne (No Party Preference) - Entertainer
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Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata is looking for a way to get those who signed the recall petitions to change their mind. This is a waste of time, though it’s a common tactic.
There are two problems, namely that any such effort has no way to identify voters who might have signed, and California law says such changes of heart must take place within 30 days of certification.
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These days there is only one standard by which to judge proposed changes to democracy: do they disenfranchise minority voters?
With Republican legislation at the state level nationally, the answer seems to be yes. Now they're trying to capitalize on disgust with their own ideas to keep the recall in the news.
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Governor Newsom does deserve a day of reckoning for his actions. And that day should be Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
From the New York Times:
Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist, predicts that Mr. Newsom will survive the recall. But he added that the governor’s numbers indicate that his troubles with voters are not over.
Last month, pollsters at Emerson College and Nexstar Media Group asked Californians about the 2022 election. If they could, would they vote again for Mr. Newsom?More than 58 percent of registered voters said they preferred someone new.
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https://twitter.com/amie_zamudio/status/1382693353783975949?s=20
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