There is still time for much to change: if the organizers of the recall effort reach the subscription limit, the vote to remove Mr. Newsom and choose his successor – both would be done in a single vote – would probably not take place until the end of the year. .
This recall effort is being led by Orrin Heatlie, a conservative and former sergeant in the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, who last year shared anti-vaccination and anti-LGBTQ views online. But the effort is supported by a number of well-endowed political action committees, most of them on the right.
Randy Economy, a political consultant and radio presenter, serves as principal consultant to Recall Gavin Newsom, the group that is organizing the effort. He said the governor’s behavior and attitude made the recall necessary. “It is because of Gavin Newsom himself and the way he has behaved every day since he became governor,” Economy said in an interview. “It all has to do with your image and self-aggrandizement, rather than solving problems.”
Newsom’s approval rating is not as low as that of Governor Gray Davis in 2003, when voters fired him in a recall. Arnold Schwarzenegger, running as a moderate Republican, was the beneficiary of that effort, winning the revocation election and serving as governor for more than seven years.
California policy is different – and decidedly more democratic – than it was 18 years ago. Democrats now have a 2 to 1 advantage in terms of electoral registration across the state. Just because there is a Republican-led effort doesn’t mean that a Republican will be the only one to benefit. Economy, who volunteered in 2016 for Trump’s presidential campaign, but has also worked for Democrats in the past, insisted that his team’s goal was not partisan in nature.
“Our job is not to choose the next governor; our job is to make sure that this governor is fired and removed from office, ”he said.
The state does not have many prominent (not to mention popular) politicians, and some ambitious Democrats already seem ready to run out the open door. All of this points to a possible irony: even if it became just the second successful recall effort in California history, the pressure – led by conservative interests – could ultimately raise another Democrat, possibly one to Newsom’s left. .