Will liberal Californians throw-out their liberal governor? Secretary of State Shirley Weber set September 14, 2021 for Gavin Newsom’s recall vote.
The recall has been part of the state’s elective process since 1911. Since then, there have been 54 attempts to recall Golden State governors. California is one of only two states in the nation to remove a governor. Democrat Governor Gray Davis was dismissed in 2003.
Proponents needed 1,495,709 valid petition signatures to initiate the Newsom recall election. This is equal to 12% of votes cast for Governor in 2018 as prescribed in the state Constitution.
Recall advocates had 160 days from June 10, 2020 to collect sufficient signatures. However, due to Covid -19 restrictions the Sacramento Superior Court extended the deadline to submit signatures to March 17, 2021.
Along with the recall question on the ballot, there will also be replacement candidates. This vote for a candidate counts only if 50% plus one chooses to recall the Governor. The Governor is prohibited from being a candidate to succeed himself. Votes can be cast for both or either parts of the ballot.
Candidates must file paperwork up to 59 days prior to the election along with a $4,194.94 filing fee (or 7,000 voter signatures). The time for filing and campaigning was shortened by the liberal legislature that passed SB152 to hurry the election in Newsom’s favor. Newsom’s people also misfiled his paperwork leaving the ‘democrat’ designation off the ballot. Of course, the law does not apply to Newsom. He is going to court to get a ‘Gavin’ waiver.
The Secretary of State must provide a certified list of qualifying candidates 55-days before the election.
Candidates for governor must be a U.S. citizen; a registered voter and otherwise qualified to vote for that office at the time the nomination papers are issued; not have been convicted of a felony involving accepting or receiving, or offering to give, any bribe, the embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes, and not have served two terms in the office since November 6, 1990.
If Governor Newsom is recalled then the candidate with the most votes would complete the Governor’s term in office ending in 2022. The new Governor would take office 38 days following the election. County Clerks have 30-days after the election to complete the official canvass.
Though recall petitions were signed statewide, the highest concentrations of signatures were in the rural northeast, areas with low coronavirus case counts and where voters favored President Donald Trump. These areas are home to 5% of the state's population but where more than 10% of the total signatures were gathered.
The lowest support of the recall is in San Francisco, Marin and Imperial Counties. The greatest support as a ratio of signatures to total registered voters came from Amador, Lassen, Calaveras, and Tuolumne Counties. In Amador County, 191 per thousand registered voters signed the recall. In San Francisco County just 18 per thousand signed.
Yuba County saw 144 per thousand sign (5,836) and in Sutter County 125 per thousand (6,544) signed. To see a successful recall the north state needs many more registered conservatives that will vote. And, there will be no recall without significant numbers of liberals state-wide that are done with Newsom.
There may be more than 100 candidates on the ballot to get publicity or become governor. A couple interesting names rumored recently as candidates are talk-show host Larry Elder and Assemblyman Kevin Kiley. Kiley opposed and filed a legal action against Newsom’s tyrannical behavior. Neither has filed papers at this point.
(Lou Binninger can be heard on No Hostages Radio podcast, live on KMYC 1410AM 10-noon Saturdays, read at Live with Lou Facebook and Nohostagesradio.com)
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