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The recall against Gavin Newsom is official after the Secretary of State’s office announced that enough valid signatures were collected to recall him.
To initiate the recall process, 1.5 million signatures were needed, but 100,000 more were collected, so Newsom will now face the possibility of being removed from office.
After learning about the certification of signatures, Newsom reacted on Twitter: “This Republican recall threatens our values and seeks to undo the important progress we’ve made,” he said.
There is still a chance that the recall against Gavin Newsom will not take place, but it will depend on whether Newsom’s campaign can get a significant number of people, just over 100,000, to withdraw their signatures in the next 30 days. Those who choose to do so would have to file a written request with the elections office in their county of residence. Therefore, it seems unlikely that it will happen.
Civil society and non-profit organizations were the ones that focused on collecting signatures to recall Newsom later this year.
The governor was elected with 62% of the vote two years ago and has seen his approval ratings plummet due to business shutdowns, keeping schools closed across the state, and poorly undertaking the vaccine rollout.
Who will replace Gavin Newsom after his possible ouster?
Now the candidates vying to replace the current governor will have to file all the relevant paperwork in order to take a place on the ballot.
It recently became known that among the Republicans who have expressed their intention to run is Olympic champion and reality show star, Caitlyn Jenner, who in addition to filing her paperwork will have to pay a $4,200 fee or failing that, submit at least 7,000 voter signatures endorsing her.
The ballots that will be given to voters in California include a two-part question. They will be asked if they want to recall Newsom, and if the answer is yes, they will be asked to nominate a candidate to replace him. By law, Newsom will not be allowed to run again.
If Newsom’s recall is confirmed then Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis must schedule the election within 60 to 80 days after the announcement.
The reasons for the recall against Gavin Newsom
The California governor has been embroiled in scandals that could take a toll on him and have been widely criticized. In late 2020, photographs uploaded to the Internet were made public in which the governor was shown mingling, maskless, among guests at a dinner at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley after he had sanctioned measures to require the use of masks and widespread movement restrictions. Newsom apologized for attending and called the event a “blunder.”
Adding to this, California has been one of the slowest states to distribute the vaccine to the population. “Governor Newsom should leave office because he has mishandled the COVID pandemic, but we also have a significant number of jobs leaving the state, and the number of homeless people has grown much more during his tenure,” said Joe Collins, a former Republican congressional candidate in California.
From February through April, 3,300,000 small businesses nationwide disappeared, according to an analysis by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. In California, 30% of small businesses remained closed in November and at least 19,000 closed permanently, according to a report by the Little Hoover Commission, a state oversight agency.
The political fate of the Democratic governor, who now not only faces an uphill battle to win any election, but is on the verge of what appears to be imminent recall vote, is not yet known.
