Selective focus voting yes on California Gubernatorial Recall Election Ballot Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 10, 2021. (Photo: Elliott Cowand Jr/Shutterstock)
The Greenberg Brief: Another Newsom Recall, Another Failure?
How California’s recall rules could thwart this next attempt
By Richie Greenberg, February 27, 2024 12:33 pm
Did you vote to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom back in 2021? I did, as did nearly 4.9 million voters across the state. But Newsom survived, with 62% of California’s voters ultimately deciding no.
Gavin Newsom is now as unpopular as ever, and a tyrant in many, many ways. His surviving that 2021 attempt to oust him only emboldened him. Aspiring to the nation’s highest office has become glaringly obvious, it now seems simply a matter of time before he’s officially in the mix for the Presidency.
Looking back at the legal mechanism of that Newsom recall, specifically, I can tell you why it failed in 2021 and could fail again: It’s in the way a recalled governor’s replacement is chosen.
When I launched the movement to oust San Francisco’s disaster of a district attorney Chesa Boudin in January 2021, I knew the odds were very good voters would recall him at the polls. Under San Francisco’s laws, the mayor appoints a temporary replacement for a recalled DA, so the entire focus is on the issue at hand: get the controversial official out of office.
So in the June 2022 DA recall election, voters easily threw Chesa Boudin out. Within days, Mayor London Breed announced her decision on his replacement, serving until the next scheduled election be held. In other words, under our recall laws in force in San Francsico, its recall/appoint/election at a later date.
This is not the case on the state level, and it’s a fundamentally difficult mechanism to work with.
When Gavin Newsom’s recall proponents were successful in gathering sufficient valid signatures to trigger a special election, voters were faced with not one but two simultaneous questions: Should Newsom be removed from the office of governor? And if you vote yes, then who is his immediate replacement? In simpler terms: Simultaneous Recall and Replace. You decide, right now, on the spot.
Leading up to the Newsom recall election day, a slew of potential candidates threw their hats in the ring, a total of forty-six in all. Larry Elder came out on top of the polls going in, and Newsom’s operatives sprang to action. Overall, the message became “Larry Elder is the Black face of White Supremacy.” And that message, along with the near-universal claim recalls are fronted by disgruntled Republicans was repeated and repeated to voters ad nauseum. From Newsom to Chesa Boudin, George Gascon in Los Angeles, Pamela Price in Alameda – all such recall attempts, once announced, are blamed on Republicans, in knee-jerk fashion.
Larry Elder was vilified and degraded, dragged through the mud to the voting booths. And once the polls closed that evening of September 14 2021, networks called the recall a failure within minutes.
Voters, when presented with the two simultaneous questions (recall, and replace with whom), the decision becomes not only confusing but then a balancing of recalling one unsavory official with a greater seemingly unsavory replacement – at what price. With a vilified Larry Elder, Californians were clearly unwilling to go with a Black, Christian Evangelical Pro-Trump Republican who was labeled as aligned with White Supremacy. Slanders and fabrications took a huge toll on Elder’s efforts and voters decided it’d be better to retain Newsom.
This is the recall mechanism for California governors. If instead we had the San Francisco method of recall/appoint a replacement/vote later, Newsom may have had a more precarious fate. But now, with another recall against him launched yesterday (Monday. February 26, 2024), I foresee another potential failure as the voters will again have to weigh retaining Newsom vs whichever candidate he’d be replaced with. Is this latest effort worth it? Or is launching a recall timed now to counter his aspirations for the Presidency?
- Greenberg: Reflections and Hope, from a Pancreatic Cancer Survivor - November 21, 2024
- Stakes are High for Daniel Lurie, San Francisco’s Next Mayor - November 19, 2024
- Greenberg: Harris and Breed, Radical Women Deserved Defeat - November 11, 2024
RELATED ARTICLES
-
September 15, 2021 -
February 27, 2021 -
February 18, 2021
We do not need another recall special election. We have an election coming up later this year and if we replace all of the Assembly and senate, this will effectively neuter Dipity Doo’s power.
I saw Mr. Elder at a speaking engagement after the recall and he used “the blackface of white supremacy” line in his remarks. That line cracks me up every time. I agree with your point that voters are easily confused with the 2-question ballot. Although I will remind you that folks were able to see through this and recalled Gray Davis (unfortunately we got Arnold who was all movie persona with very little leadership skills). For that recall I believe that there were over 100 on the ballot with one being a porn star. While the fight is daunting it is worth the effort for the following reasons. 1. What will California be like after 2 1/2 years of unbridled Newsom and secondly what negative effect with a liberal California have on an incoming conservative administration. The timing of this recall is perfect. We have to forget the past and charge forward to the future.
One more comment. It just clicked Newsom is purposely knocking down dams under his watch to eliminate the amount of future water that can be used for agriculture. This will help the global elites control what people in America and the world eat in the future. This man has to be stopped. The sooner the better. This is a real war for the future of America
There are benefits to voters when corrupt politicians know they will remain tenacious.
The process may not be the San Francisco way but the above effect stands.
For many reasons, Gavin Newsom would much prefer this was not happening to him.
That alone is reason to push ahead.
A cancer must be excised before it kills the host…
Remove Newsom immediately before he feels emboldened to the Presidency, even though the dark forces behind big politics appear to be preparing him for a run, either this year or in another four…
He has almost killed California and I fear for the nation if he is allowed to succeed….
Recall his slimy hide ASAP….
Period – Full Stop
The method of recall/appoint a replacement/vote later might be a slightly better approach, but the San Francisco approach always results in a slightly less odious Democrat replacement?
The fact that Larry Elder was a Black, Christian Evangelical Pro-Trump Republican had nothing to do with his election loss. Larry Elder got into the race late, he ran a lackluster campaign, and he refused to challenge clear instances of election fraud. Newsom was kept in office with the usual Democrat voter fraud and rigged voting machines.
@TJ – great points. I like Larry Elder but repeating the same handful of stats on kids needing fathers in the home, lousy test scores in schools, and whatever else just didn’t bring enough Californians to the table. And that “Black face of White supremacy” nonsense should have had Larry at LA Times front door demanding a one-on-one with the author of the article!
And I think a second Newsom recall is a waste of time and money.
In opposition to the 2021 attempt to recall Newsom, the governor’s allies raised over $88 million. The recall committees altogether spent not quite $21 million. Depending on whether you consider the gross or the net amount, that is at least $67 million in campaign contributions that did not go off to bolster campaigns for Democrats in other states.
Here’s how much of a difference this money can make. In November 2022, the median amount of money raised by an incumbent U.S. Congressman in a battleground district (rated as “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report) was $5.5 million. This means $67 million would cover 100 percent of the campaign expenses in 12 close congressional races. We may assume median spending for congressional seats will be higher in 2024 than in 2022. But in 2024 congressional races in swing districts, where funding is already flowing in from around the nation, it’s reasonable to assume $67 million will go a long way.
If a Newsom recall is qualified for the California ballot this year, that money is going to stay home. Successfully placing a Newsom recall on the ballot during this critical election year in California is going to damage the Democrat’s plan to recapture control of the U.S. Congress. It matters that much.
https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/28/how-another-newsom-recall-effort-helps-america/
While you may be correct in damaging the Democrats’ plans to recapture the House this year, I do believe that is the short game. I think the long game here is to create new districts in California through massive immigration and housing in order to INCREASE the federal census. In so doing, California gains more districts and House seats (and electoral college votes) and when enough House seats belong to California Democrats / progressives, California can rule entire country with its agenda including climate change, vaccine mandates, food control, etc. Won’t matter which party holds the WH, the House will leverage both the US Senate and the WH to achieve its ends once California controls Congress.
So be aware that Sacramento’s home-building mandates in EVERY jurisdiction in California likely have an ulterior motive than simply housing the homeless as claimed. Some estimates I’ve read for CA’s homeless population are between 100,000 and 100,500 people. In the 2020 census, CA had seen enough population exodus that CA actually LOST a District and hence a seat in Congress. So who is living in all those houses/living quarters that those people left? Unknown to me (though some claim the properties were bought up by Air BnB investors) but this obsession with building houses appears to have another agenda than what is claimed.
So be aware that ALL bond monies for housing will ultimately benefit that long game plan I mentioned above, and California taxpayers will be funding it and could be effectively cementing the Democrat progressive agenda nationwide via Congress.
Nobody I know or read or spoke with wanted Larry Elder, a talk show personality, for Governor — so NOT ONE of those registered voters bothered to vote in the Recall. CA Globe is complicit in PUSHING Larry Elder as THE replacement candidate in the last Recall against Newsom who so richly deserved to be recalled. Amazing how this publication doesn’t see its own selective advocacy as part of the failed recall problem which it definitely was since it was a very vocal proponent for Mr. Elder. Not sure how such advocacy reflects on any alleged news publication to the public. And let us not overlook the well-honed Democrat cheating where California has been the testing grounds for years on such methods to pack government, local, state and recently federal, with Democrat, i.e., progressive candidates. As for Newsom as POTUS, well he might be the poster boy for the Democrats ideal replacement for Biden (the Dems have no one else), but much of the rest of the country sees him as a lunatic.