In an effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, lawmakers and volunteers have collected nearly 1.95 million signatures days before the final deadline on March 17 to trigger a special recall election. Californians have argued that the movement is beyond political in an effort to reopen their state, as well as getting kids back to school and reopening small businesses.
The Recall Gavin 2020 campaign needed to collect 1.5 million signatures in order to qualify for a ballot but were aiming to reach 2 million signatures to compensate for invalidated signatures. In early February, the Secretary of State’s office found nearly 83% of the signatures counted to be valid and from registered California voters already.
Most of the signatures have been collected by volunteers and through mail campaigns, as well as through paid professional signature gatherers. The website addresses how Gov. Newsom has failed Californians including unaffordable housing, record homelessness, rising crime, and failing schools. It also addresses concerns regarding independent contractors being thrown out of work and a locked-down population while the prisons are emptied. If the effort succeeds and 1.5 million signatures are verified, a recall election would likely occur later this year.
“That is more than enough to be able to have this initiative qualified for a special election later this year to let the people finally decide … what is gonna happen with the fate and the future of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Californias are consistently becoming more disgruntled with how their state’s run,” said Randy Economy, a political advisor working on the movement.
Economy talked about how lobbyists and politicians have destroyed California’s dreams “for decades” and that the game is over. He said that the people of California are in charge to take the government into their own hands and have the ability to hold elected officials accountable through a recall mechanism.
The campaign, which is led by the California Patriot Coalition, started in Kern County by Flor Hull and spread to over 50 other counties in California. Hull said her concerns began after Gov. Newsom’s lack of preparation throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, including the outbreak at Stollwood nursing home. It was one of the deadliest nursing home outbreaks in Northern California that killed at least 17 people.
Nursing home employees at nearby facilities, as well as California health leaders, criticized Gov. Newsom’s response to the pandemic. Dr. Michael S. Wilkes, a member of the Yolo County Health Council, wrote an email to the county’s top health officials asking for “clearer guidance and clear oversight” regarding the rollout of ever-changing rules. Nursing home staff members and health care personnel did not receive any CDC guidance on returning back to work and whether they needed to be tested or not.
Others have also questioned Gov. Newsom’s credibility for going against his own stay-at-home orders and attending a friend’s birthday dinner during a spike in coronavirus cases. The dinner was at The French Laundry, one of the finest and most expensive restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, and photos showed officials and lobbyists sitting maskless around a crowded table of 12. Critics lashed out at Gov. Newsom for dining at such a fancy restaurant when so many Californians are unemployed.
California and New York citizens are ready to kick their hypocritical governors to the curb after months of them being praised by radical left leaders for “fighting COVID-19.” If this isn’t a political lesson on how states should be run, then I don’t know what is.
