Gavin Newsom Notified of Intent to Recall

An intent of recall petition, started only last week by Saving California, was received by Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday following enough signatures gathered, moving forward the latest recall attempt.

Several recall efforts have been mounted against Newsom since he was sworn in as Governor in 2019. The most successful attempt to date came in 2021, where organizers collected enough signatures to place the recall on the ballot. However, Newsom managed to defeat the recall in September of that year.

While recall attempts since then fizzled out, a new attempt this year rapidly gained steam in the past few weeks because of the Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles wildfires. Mismanagement of the fires by Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass exposed their actions to an international audience, with many in California turning against them. A recall effort against Newsom was already in the works for later this year, based on other issues including crime, homelessness, the cost of living, increased drug use, and high business costs. But with wildfire mismanagement now the main issue working against Newsom, Saving California moved their timeline up, leading to their initial announcement last week in Los Angeles.

“Sometimes with fire comes blessings,” said Saving California Chairman Randy Economy last week at the announcement press conference. “Tens of thousands have lost homes in these fires, and they want leadership. Governor Newsom is not bringing that leadership. Sometimes things are not in our hands. We were going to do this in a few weeks, but the wildfires moved up our schedule.

“The recall is a last resort. Newsom is off track. He is not focused. He is consumed with Donald Trump instead of being concerned with the people of California. Welcome to the end of your career Gavin Newsom. We’re coming after you.”

Over 100 signatures were gathered at the event for the intent of recall petition. Only 50 signatures are needed for such petitions, meaning the group met their goal on the first day. On Monday, Economy sent the petition to the Governor, with acknowledgement that it was received coming on Friday. According to state law, Newsom now has 10 days to acknowledge that he received it.

A possible 2025 recall election of Gov. Newsom

While only one of the several attempts to recall Newsom has succeeded, Saving California said that 2025 is different, especially in lieu of the Los Angeles wildfires.

“It’s 100% different,” said Economy. “Completely different type of attitude, completely different type of anger. People are really, really angry. And when you get anger like this, you can’t put the genie back into the bottle. Gavin Newsom might be bigger than life in some people’s eyes, but he’s just a really bad politician. He’s not ready to be the leading man. We need a governor. It’s real simple—we’re going to fire him. I think people right now have had it. The people who lost their homes have had it. These were his traditional base of voters, and they’re all disgusted with him. The anger is something I’ve never seen in California politics. I’ve been doing this for 40 years as a consultant, and I’ve never seen so much anger in my life.

“When I did the last recall that got on the ballot three years ago, there wasn’t this level of anger. He was able to raise $175 million and put together a very formidable coalition, from the White House down to Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren. Every political superstar came to California every other day to campaign for him. Well, he’s not going to have that this time. He’s on his own. People have had it. We need a full-time chief executive officer, someone who will focus on the needs of the average Californian. Gavin Newsom only cares about running for president.”

In their acknowledgement of receipt of the notice Friday, Governor Newsom’s office said that the Governor is currently more focused on wildfire recovery and will acknowledge the intent within the appropriate length of time. However, they further noted the failures of previous attempts by groups like Rescue California.

“Governor Newsom is focused on marshalling resources for fire recover, not politics,” said Newsom Spokesman Nathan Click. “Readers still should have the context that the same group of far right Trump acolytes have launched 7 different recall attempts against the governor since he’s taken office, each of which have failed spectacularly.”

Despite Newsom and his supporters remaining dismissive of the latest recall attempt, pollsters have said that the recall attempt this year would be more successful than the 2021 attempt should it get to the ballot.

“Polls have shown Newsom being pretty low, although it varies widely depending on who you ask,” explained LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Friday. “So his unfavorable ratings last year were between about 35% and 50%. That isn’t great. Also, pre-fires, the last poll showed him at 46% approval, 47% disapproval. Now after the fires, we’re seeing his disapprovals go above 50%. We’re still gathering responses, but the raw figures of what we do have are not pointing his way.

“It’s still not as bad as [Los Angeles Mayor Karen] Bass. A poll last weekend put her approval at 37%, and from what we gathered, it’s likely even lower now. And she’ll likely have a recall start up soon too. But Newsom isn’t far behind. Also, keep in mind this. In 2021, during the recall election, Newsom’s approval ratings were above 50%. So, right now, yes, it looks like it can be more successful than 2021. And L.A., which voted by majority against the recall in 2021, will be much different this time since so many were affected by the fires.”

Once Newsom acknowledges the petition and it is okayed by the state, which should take a couple of weeks, then signature gathering can begin.

Signature gathering for the recall is expected within 30 days, but Saving California is hoping for sooner. In total, around 1.2 million to 1.3 million signatures are needed to place the recall on the ballot, although hundreds of thousands more are likely going to be collected as well in case of invalid voters signing the petition, duplicate signatures, and other issues. In 2021, the Secretary of State’s office found that just below 80% of all the signatures for the recall that year were valid, or roughly 1.7 million of the 2.1 million collected.

However, Economy isn’t worried, as the group will have 160 days to collect those signatures.

“If we don’t get this done in a couple of weeks, I’ll be shocked,” expressed Economy. “The anger is driving this, and we’ve been bombarded 24 hours a day for the past two weeks with people asking, “Where do I sign? How do I get my petition?” The demand is there, and it’s only going to grow stronger.”