Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Recall Effort Against Governor Newsom Gains National and International Exposure
After being featured in major newspapers and international news segments, the recall effort gains steam in California
By Evan Symon, December 2, 2019 2:56 pm
The recall petitions against Governor Gavin Newsom reached a high not seen since 2003 and made national and international news this past weekend.
Making national news
Major newspapers across the country, from the San Francisco Chronicle to publications in New York and Washington, carried the news online and in print, while Fox News aired a segment on the recall that was broadcast globally, with additional local affiliates replaying the segment throughout the day Monday across the United States.
“Up until mid-November this was seen as a fringe, far right Republican sort of thing,” said Katrina Shaw, a political consultant in Washington, DC who specializes in special elections. “But this last weekend brought it out in the open.”
“The same thing happened with [former Governor] Gray Davis in 2003,” Shaw said. “People thought he was corrupt and had not done California right over the energy issues and costs they had around that time. But this news never left California until CNN and Fox brought up these petitions against him. You can count Judge Aaron Persky too. Many Californians were upset about his lenient ruling in the Brock Turner rape case, and the case had a national presence. But they didn’t get enough signatures for the petition until news of it hit social media like wildfire. And it worked. He was recalled last year.”
“Many Governors, Judges, Sheriffs, and other elected officials have faced recall petitions before, but none of them get far until they make the news in a big way. And it just happened to both of Newsom’s recall petitions.”
Money also played a part too. For Gray Davis, Republican Representative Darrell Issa’s funding of the recall campaign is widely seen as as a major factor of its success. The same goes for Judge Persky, when numerous women’s groups donated against him. Without a major source of money, both of the petitions against Newsom face a bit more of an uphill battle.
A tale of two recall petitions
There are currently two recall petitions in California.
One by former Republican Senate candidate Erin Cruz began in August. Wording in her petition lays out her reasons for the recall:
“Over a decade of proven mismanagement of-policies, public monies and resources, and of leadership have led to deterioration of California communities, poor schools, crumbling infrastructure, outrageous rise of costs from gas to utilities, mass housing crisis, frightening increase in homelessness, and insurmountable debt… all caused by gross mismanagement.”
The other, written by former Republican Congressional candidate Dr. James Veltmeyer, listed the reasons as giving healthcare to illegal aliens, tax increases, homelessness, and sanctuary cities within the state.
The Cruz recall petition needs 1,495,709 signatures by February 13th to be on the ballot, while the Veltmeyer recall petition needs the same number by March 5th.
Dr. Veltmeyer, appeared on Fox News on Sunday. In addition to explaining each point of his petition in more detail, such as giving healthcare to illegal immigrants only leading to more coming here and how the Governor has not done enough to combat the homeless problem, Dr. Veltmeyer gave the main reason as to why he’s doing this.
“I came here legally at age 11,” said Dr. Veltmeyer. “Having grown up in extreme poverty and being homeless to now being one of San Diego’s most prominent physicians, that’s the American Dream, that’s the California dream. And that’s what Gov. Newsom and left-wingers in the legislature are progressively destroying.”
The Governor’s response
Governor Newsom’s office has responded to the growing strength of the petitions. Instead of a summary, the Globe decided to give readers the full response, with all punctuation and capitalization left intact:
“WARNING: THIS UNWARRANTED RECALL EFFORT WILL COST CALIFORNIA TAXPAYERS $81 MILLION DOLLARS! IT IS BEING PUSHED BY POLITICAL EXTREMISTS SUPPORTING PRESIDENT TRUMP’S HATEFUL ATTACKS ON CALIFORNIA.
Less than one year ago, by historic margins, California voters elected Gavin Newsom Governor.
Since then, Governor Newsom has already made good on his promises to 1) increase funding for public education, 2) protect and secure your health care, 3) improve water, roads and bridges and 4) prepare California for wildfire threats.
Our budget is balanced. Our reserves are unprecedented. Our state economy and employment have hit historic highs.
Yet a handful of partisan activists supporting President Trump and his dangerous agenda to divide America are trying to overturn the definitive will of California voters and bring Washington’s broken government to California with this recall effort.
The last thing California needs is another wasteful special election, supported by those who demonize California’s people and attack California’s values.
Do not be fooled – California’s police officers, firefighters, first responders, public school teachers, health providers, and business leaders all STRONGLY OPPOSE this costly recall.
DO NOT HAND OVER YOUR SIGNATURE, YOUR SUPPORT OR YOUR PERSONAL, PRIVATE INFORMATION TO THIS DESTRUCTIVE RECALL SCHEME.”
The problems with Newsom’s response
Shaw, who has looked over both petitions and the Governor’s response, gave a quick analysis.
“Cruz and Veltmeyer use some wording that will turn off some voters, most notably the use of ‘illegal aliens’, and in Veltmeyer’s, trying to tie in gangs with immigration. Neither have worked in elections, let alone recalls,” noted Shaw. “Otherwise they are pretty solid petitions.”
“Governor Newsom’s response is problematic,” Shaw said. “Among younger generations, using all capital letters is portrayed as shouting or acting in a childish manner, so he can potentially lose some younger people’s support with this. They tend to vote more left too. It doesn’t go into great detail about his accomplishments, brags about how many votes he got, and is immediately pointing to Trump supporters being behind it.”
“This comes off as panicky and trying to put the blame on someone less popular than him. Last month only 44% approved of him. And who is the only politician who has a lower approval rating than him, not to mention having numerous verbal spats with? Trump. If this was another politician, social media would have ripped them apart by now for writing that,” Shaw said.
Gaining steam in unlikely areas
The national exposure has also had some positive effects for the petitions. Web searches for the petitions spiked over the weekend with the number of estimated new signatures added being projected at twofold.
“It’s what happened with Gray Davis after exposure like that,” explained Shaw. “Neither of them have been releasing how many signatures they’ve gotten, but we probably won’t hear from them about a big need unless it’s less than a month away and they’re not close.”
A colleague of Shaw, Royce Jackson, also chimed in on the recall petitions.
“We’ve noticed that both petitions are gaining traction in areas that were in the majority for Newsom,” said Jackson. “Parts of the Bay Area have seen many people collecting signatures setting up shop, and we’ve seen reports from very liberal areas like the San Gabriel Valley also seeing an uptick of people collecting signatures.”
“You expect to see signatures coming from Orange County, Bakersfield, parts of San Diego, parts of Sacramento. But we’re seeing it happen in solid blue areas now too. If you think back to Gray Davis, there were people in San Francisco and Los Angeles signing his recall petition, and those were his two biggest bases. This is only precedented by Davis, and look what happened there.”
The possible November recall vote
While the petitions are not close to garnering enough signatures for a ballot recall vote this November, the case being made against him is now becoming more and more of a national issue, and that may tip the scale towards a recall vote.
“We can only base it on what we know, which is how popular he is, what’s happened before, what the political climate is, and what the exposure is on this,” explained Shaw. “And besides being a Democrat in a very blue state, there’s not much else.”
“It took being made a national story, but I think at least one of the petitions now has enough traction to make it to the ballot. Especially, like you said, if they can get funding sorted out,” Shaw added.
“There’s a lot of angry Californians out west. We’re finally going to see them.”
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ranaf.org
And Dr. Veltmeyer’s recall effort is here:
https://recallnewsom.us/
And Erin Cruz’ recall petition made up of 100% grassroot volunteers, not paid circulators who have no skin in the game like Veltmeyer’s petition can be found here: https://ranaf.org/
It doesn’t matter if signature collectors are paid. What matters is that one or both groups collect enough signatures to qualify the recall.
Most citizens who have ever been involved in a statewide collection of signatures know that paid sig gatherers are of the norm.
Don’t make enemies with the grassroots group. We may need their help and vice versa.
Too bad the doctor didn’t join forces since Erin’s was already approved and being signed. I am afraid neither will get the required signatures and what a damn shame that will be.
Best thing to do is sign them both
thank you i was wondering. do the 2 petitions counteract each other?
cant the 2 groups work together?
Actually, it is not a good thng to sign them both. The recall petition started by the good doctor is a distraction. It is a way to syphon off signatures from the one Erin Cruz started. His was started later than Erin Cruz’s. They count as two separate petitions. The one by Dr Veltmeyer also has a repeal of prop 13 initiative for commercial buildings. Do not sign anything that has to do with Prop 13. It will be worse than the gas tax proposition if it passes. They will tug at your heart strings and say it’s for the children and it is not. It is to fund the pensions. I am sure Newsom will spend the tax money elsewhere.
Some reason both cannot be signed?
Thank goodness someone has stepped up about this man.
Good news for a change.
Which reminds me, wasn’t Newsom’s campaign slogan “Courage for a Change?”
Oh, brother.
Worst Governor ever! Newsom elicits behavior of arrogance and narcissistic and blames his fellow Californians for any mistakes.
Clearly governor Newsom doesn’t understand that many Californians would rather spend $81M on a recall election than have a state government spend millions of dollars on sanctuary state polices including providing health care, housing, CalFresh and other benefits to undocumented migrants, when we have 140K homeless people on the streets, a critical shortage of lower income housing for citizens both for families and senior housing. The job growth in the state is not from jobs that can sustain the cost of living here. The members of the statehouse have no idea how the economy works, this is clear. Raising minimum wage to $15/hr did not help anyone except working high school students. Because every time minimum wage goes up so do prices for housing, gasoline, food, and other items that people need. Anyone with common sense knows that prices increase as disposable income increases and this is like a regressive tax on the poorest people. There is NO ONE it seems with any common sense in the state house. If things sound good in the moment they run with it without thinking through the consequences of the laws they pass and who they hurt.
Further, the Governor’s water policy ideas need to be scraped. Farmers should be the first beneficiaries of affordable water policy to bring down the cost of fresh produce and meat. In California there is NO reason that zucchini and other vegetables should ever cost more than about $0.59 cents a pound. Metabolic syndrome is the driver of nearly all disease and is a national health crisis caused by eating a high carb diet – which for poor people is hard to escape because of the high cost of meat and produce, and the cheap cost of overly processed grain based packaged foods. It is time to have elected officials in the statehouse that actually give a damn about the working class and low income tax payers.
All you’ve said is so very true! I’m with you 100%!! I’m very happy that we are really together on recalling Newsom, as I would be plenty money on the fact that with the others of the CA mafia group who are now getting older, look to Newsom to be headed to the presidency in 2024. I’m sure that’s been their idea. They have to keep their “gang” in prime position. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLkF6zLxg_U
This Governor has betrayed his constituents just like Governor Pritzker in Illinois. Newsome caters more to illegals thanto U.S. citizens. By making California a Sanctuary State just as Illinois did, is the beginning of the end for the good people in both States. My heart goes out to everyone red blooded Patriotic American who sees their dreams of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness dwindle to extinction under this Governor.
I would like to know what part of the $81 million dollars is paying for those who are already on the State payroll.
The State Taxing Authorities are the ones who benefit from a minimum wage hike!!!!! Newsom is just self serving and corrupt, what do you expect from Pelosi’s nephew? Like her he just wants to “feed” off the hard-working people of California long enough to get himself to a federal level.
RECALL THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR
Click Google link, then zoom in on desired map location, click icon, then click on name/date at bottom of page.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1I8qpxC6YdrOc3mfJeK_-A1k7tlVvgdIQ&ll=35.913956056376044%2C-119.55366654683439&z=6
Or print one for you and others to sign: https://ranaf.org/full-recall-info-page
EXCELLENT. I’VE SIGNED, MY HUSBAND TOO. EVERY REPUBLICAN AND HOPEFULLY PLENTY OF INDEPENDENTS ARE SIGNING. LET’S DO THIS!
I moved from Illinois to Florida and Left that failing State. I feel for the Good people of California tired of the same economic mismanagement and failed Democratic Policies that have crippled its people. We are behind you 100%
I was born in Oakland, California. Forty years later, our family up and left the State. Even back then, the beginning signs of decay, homelessness, and Big Corporations and were swamping CA.
We’d love to help!!! You GO, Californians!!!
I don’t see why Californians have to pay for the recall. The people and political party wanting the recall should pay for it. Californians already paid for the election and they elected Newsom.
Some brain dead people voted for Newsome, I did not!
we don’t have to pay, it may cost some tax payer money VERY LITTLE compared to what he is ripping us off for, the Dem party has gone AWAL to what they used to represent, because they lost in 2016 they have to lie cheat and steal to try and hold their AWAL party.
You are wrong the ballots should have been recounted because Newsome and his crooked Democratic Party fixed it so that illegal aliens voted for him.
Don’t forget to mention all vote harvesting and the dead people that voted for him.
“…California’s police officers, firefighters, first responders, public school teachers, health providers, and business leaders…”
Translation : Newsom’s union / quid pro quo voter base…
The guy is a narcissistic, ambitious a-hole….
RECALL NEWSOM, BECERRA & PADILLA. – they’re all corrupt criminals who are playing for pay….
That comment about “police officers, firefighters, etc” is NewScum’s “fake news”, and a typical lie coming from this treasonous Governor. I have talked to a few local citizens who work in these professions and none of them have claimed to support him and, in fact, have signed the recall petition. Let’s all do our part and fervently hope we get enough signatures to get rid of this jerk and his minions like Becerra, Padilla, et al.
At the petition stand i was lots of law enforcement, even someone from homeland security. He is hindering law enforcement from doing their jobs
He doesn’t Care about Californians he cares about his own agenda. We vote one way he does what he wants that’s not a democracy, even listen to the people that vote You in the office or leave the office. The job of the governor is to oversee the peoples wishes of the state of California
Now he is traveling to Ohio to rally for Kamalla Harris on CA tax payer money, No one wants her but he does so he thinks he can go and you watch he will make it sound like CA is behind her! TRUMP 2020
No need for Newsom to travel for Harris, now that she has withdrawn……….Let’s see if he is going to travel anyway, on tax payers dollars???
The law makers take so much in perks from various corporations to grant their wishes they become super rich and put aside the needs of the common people who voted them into office on his promices to them to make California great again
The cost isn’t from the recall. It is from the election following the recall.
Recall Gavin Newsom so my son may collect on his Social Security Disability that was given to illegal immigrants. My son should have received his Social Security Disability for a mental disability the first time we applied for it and Social Security knows this. Yet Social Security and all other benefits are given to illegal immigrants as far as I am concerned. Give my son his Social Security Disability the first time we applied for it.
What the bafoooon does NOT understand, is that we would pay double the amount he warning against to get RID of HIM!!!!!! He better be recalled, or there will be such unrest in California, we are SICK of him. And, the Dem party as a whole need to get out of CA, and let us heal.
Please recall Newsom. NOT my governor……..
Both recall efforts are “Fruitless Quests”…Neither will succeed, and the true casualty of these fake efforts will be true GOP activists and voters.
Even the CRP has decided to dine on it’s own cadaver.
I’m looking for the head of the recall petition I have signatures to turn in need an address
http://www.ranaf.org
http://www.recallgavinnow.com
http://www.facebook.com/groups/503694556862884 ( this is to request joining of Butte Co.)
https;//ranaf.org/petition-locations
look in the comments her website is posted
Worst thing that this state did was become a sanctuary state. Why do we have to pay for all the homeless and the ms-13 gangs? If the gov. likes them, they should go live with him and let them rob him. If they want to get rid of the homeless, they should put them on an abandoned Air Force or Army base.
This is what our Governor has reduced the State of CA to–people urinating and defecating in the streets of our cities so our Liberals can have a feel good moment.
Worst gov of all time in California
Newsome is totally abusing California for himself abusing the budget doing what he wants never listening to the people ever… It’s time he’s ousted recalled he’s all washed up.. He’s dragging the State of California down the sewer line…”free Healthcare for illegals”? Totally shame on him veterans first instead of them…. Help the homeless too but he didn’t… He’s done he’s gone… Best thing for California is to give him the boot….
https://www.newsweek.com/gavin-newsom-californias-ambitious-climate-policies-are-fueling-our-booming-economy-trump-1460813
Veltmeyer bailed January 6, 2019…he siphoned off sigs from Erin’s petition gathering efforts, did not turn in one signature to the SOS, ever…whoever signed his ten-line petition needs to go find the three-line petition from the Erin Cruz group and sign right away…we need to get this corrupt governor out of this state, then concentrate on the removal of the SOS and the AG…and any other tax and spend official in his ilk…
???? ???? x’s 1,000,000,000
Recall Our governor? Move to Arizona! It’s all!!!
Worst Gov. of California ever. Must be RECALLED !
RECALL,RECALL,RECALL,RECALL,RECALL