Recall Newsom Crowd Already Whining About Electoral Fraud
Of the top 10 states for per capita covid cases, only one (Rhode Island) has a Democratic governor. Where are the recall petitions in the red states?
For the moment anyway, the former guy who lived in the White House is receding from public view. He arrived in Manhattan on Sunday and according to the NY Post, “Upon his arrival, he waved to a lone Trump supporter who was across the street next to the media.”
Fear not, California there’s some new entertainment headed our way.
Backers of the Recall Newsom effort have announced they have enough signatures (and then some) to force an election. What started as a last-ditch effort by the California GOP to stay relevant is now a cause celebre and a vehicle to line the pockets of the grifters the party tends to attract. .
The petitions haven’t been officially audited --58 county registrars get to check them out-- but that hasn’t stopped conservatives from bleating about Democrats trying to block a California recall election by manipulating the process.
Via Politico:
"I expect them to lie, cheat and steal," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in an interview, adding that Democrats could "take all the friendly registrars of voters they can find... and just challenge every signature..."
...Some conservatives have already posted false claims on social media, like actor Kevin Sorbo, perhaps best known for his title role on the 1990s "Hercules" TV series. "So California is requiring signature verification for Gavin Newsom’s recall, but didn’t require it for the mail in ballots. How strange," Sorbo tweeted last month in a claim that was false because registrars are required to check signatures on mail-in ballots — one reason election results can take so long to emerge in California.
The tweet — shared and liked more than 120,000 times — was amplified without correction by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has backed the recall and donated more than $100,000 to the campaign.
And it wouldn’t be a Republican misinformation campaign if somebody didn’t play the race card, as they have been by saying Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who was recently appointed to the post, will be checking the signatures. (She’s not)
Despite claims to the contrary, the process is no different than that has been used by petitioners to put a gaggle of propositions before voters in recent years.
For the record: county registrars will have 30 days to certify the process after the March 17 deadline to submit signatures. Verification is similar to that used in a traditional election — with the exception that duplicate signatures on recall petitions are identified and discarded. Only the signatures of “active and registered voters” will count toward qualification.
The California Department of Finance has up to 30 days to determine how much the election will cost — followed by a joint legislative budget committee which analyses that report, which could take another 30 days.
State law says Lt Governor Eleni Kounalakis gets to call the date of the election under state law. The earliest time frame considered likely will be towards the end of September. It could be as late as November.
The longer it takes to stage an election, the greater the chance that voter frustration might fade.
Frustrations over months of business restrictions and school closures and an initially slow vaccine rollout may not seem so important if life is approaching normal by the fall.
But here’s the thing; recall elections have a different set of rules from regular contests. The effort to unseat Newsom isn’t bound by the kind of rules concerning fundraising that candidates must observe.
The incumbent facing the recall vote cannot run to succeed themself. Candidates running to replace the office holder are limited in what they can raise and spend. Pro-recall advocates can spend like drunken sailors.
As an article at CalMatters points out, a replacement candidate doesn’t need to get a majority of the vote:
Recall elections offer no such guarantee. Voters are first asked whether they would like to give the incumbent the boot. Then, in a second question, they are asked who ought to be the replacement. Under California law, incumbents can’t run to replace themselves.
If more than 50% of voters opt for a “yes” on the recall question, whoever comes first on the replacement list is immediately hired as the state’s next chief executive. That’s where things can get weird. In a crowded field with no clear frontrunner, coming first could mean getting far less than 50% of the vote.
It might even mean getting far less support than the incumbent being ousted.
While Democratic strategists generally believe the “yes” vote on the recall won’t exceed 50%, they acknowledge that the special circumstances surrounding such an election and the likelihood of low voter turnout could conceivably mean a Republican would win.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1368986051201601538?s=20
From Politico:
Sanders retains a large and loyal following in Democratic-controlled California. He bested President Joe Biden during last year's Democratic primary, drawing more than two million votes.
With an effort to recall Newsom looking increasingly likely to qualify, Sanders' input could galvanize liberal opposition and help unify the left — including sending a message to liberal Democrats who might consider jumping into the recall.
Gov. Newsom’s response to the recall movement has been to double down on COVID-19 as an issue, appearing at vaccination centers and playing cheerleader for public health measures.
Tonight Gov. Gavin Newsom will deliver his third State of the State Address with Dodger Stadium as a backdrop. You can expect a heavy dose of health statistics and little in the way of new policy pronouncements.
Currently, Dodger Stadium is serving as a mass-vaccination site operated by the city of Los Angeles. It also served as the nation’s largest COVID-19 testing site. Its 56,000 seats are also nearly equivalent to the number of Californians who have died during the pandemic — 54,224 as of March 8.
Newsom’s appearance follows promises of loosening of restrictions, potentially allowing fans to attend baseball games for the first time in a year, albeit at extremely limited capacity.
From Gil Duran at the Sacramento Bee:
If the recall makes the ballot, however, Newsom will find himself in a humiliating position. He’ll be forced to relive his failures and defend his record in the middle of a political drama that, while unlikely to succeed, could still hurt him. It would force him to fight for survival and beg for support from people he’d rather ignore, such as state legislators.
It would also make Newsom — who spent years extolling his own leadership abilities and promising courage instead of cowardice — an even weaker leader. Every powerful and wealthy interest in the state will have leverage over a governor afraid to make any move that might dry up campaign contributions or trigger big checks to his opposition.
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Also…
https://twitter.com/davidgura/status/1368263225175900165?s=20
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