California voters should reject the attempt to recall Gavin Newsom.
It’s an opportunistic, partisan effort to thwart the will of the people and unseat the governor in an extraordinary time of uncertainty and anxiety.
Sadly, it’s almost par for the course in these days of escalating political brinksmanship. In his first two years in office, Newsom faced six recall petitions. The first attempt at an election do-over was filed just 70 days after he assumed office.
It was inevitable, given the ridiculously low threshold for recalling a California officeholder, that one would finally qualify for the ballot — especially given the extra time allotted for signature-gathering because of the pandemic.
It will prove a colossal waste of time and taxpayer money when it inevitably fails. Inevitably.
Don’t fall for it.
There’s no doubt that Newsom is not perfect. We’ve disagreed with him on many things, especially his erratic pandemic response, the unemployment insurance payment debacle and that sweetheart contract for prison guards.
But none of that, nor getting caught without a mask at the French Laundry, is enough to press the red button and eject him from office. Recall should be reserved for serious, willful misconduct or gross incompetence, neither of which is present here.
For those who have policy differences with Newsom, there are elections every four years. Instead, we have midterm political theatrics emanating from the right-wing base as it whines about the governor’s mask and social distancing mandates and his shutdown of businesses to control the spread of coronavirus.
On that key complaint, the recall backers have it backwards. If anything, Newsom was too quick last year to reopen the economy. But wherever one might fall on the pandemic-response spectrum, there is no denying that Newsom has worked tirelessly to try to lead the state in a very difficult period.
And, by the biggest marker of his tenure, he has outperformed most other governors in the country in his control of the spread of COVID-19. California is 12th lowest of the nation’s 50 states in per-capita cases and 19th lowest in per-capita deaths. The state ranks 18th best in the percentage of fully vaccinated adults. In each case, the state is better than the national average.
But, of course, the quest to remove Newsom isn’t about his performance, it’s about leveraging California’s recall rules for political advantage.
Only 19 states have provisions for voters to remove the governor midterm, and no others have a threshold as low as California’s. The state requires only the signatures of registered voters equal to 12% of the votes cast for governor in the last election.
It’s a bar ripe for abuse by political consultants and signature-gathering firms, as we witnessed in the 2003 Gray Davis recall, and we’re now seeing again. And the bar was made easier to hurdle this time when the usual 160-day period for gathering signatures was extended by court order for another five months because of the pandemic.
As a result, backers had more than 10 months to qualify the recall. The extension allowed them to succeed where the five other efforts to qualify a Newsom recall had failed.
The recall process in California has gone far beyond a check on those who abuse their political power. It has become its own tool ripe for abuse as a means of political pressure and retribution.
Californians should reject this exploitation. They should vote no on the recall.
