JURIST is launching a new series of dispatches from major US states written by JURIST correspondents “on the ground” in those jurisdictions. JURIST Operations Director Ram Eachambadi files this report from Los Angeles.
An almost teary-eyed “humbled and grateful” California Governor Gavin Newsom addressed his supporters and the media at approximately 8:50 PM on Tuesday thanking voters for the overwhelming “No” vote on the recall and saying yes to science, vaccines, right to vote, ending the pandemic and “women’s fundamental, constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and her fate and future.”
As noted in my previous California dispatch, there was some concern among Democrat voters about a possible GOP voter surge on Tuesday due to the fact that Republicans are more likely to vote in person rather than use the mail-in ballot. However, Newsom did not just survive the recall—he essentially destroyed the recall effort and massacred his opponents with 64% of the votes in a landslide victory that seems almost identical to his regular gubernatorial electoral victory in 2018.
Los Angeles County, not surprisingly, voted 71% “No” on the recall. Even the capital city, Sacramento and Santa Barbara and San Diego voted 64%, 65% and 59% “No” on the recall. All the three counties, while traditionally blue, are areas where the Democrat camp had some concerns. Orange County, where the concern was the highest among Democrats had 53% voting “No.”
It took no more than 40 minutes after the polls closed at 8:00 PM for CNN to call a victory for Newsom. While the votes are still being counted, more than 70% of the votes are in and the recall proponents do not stand a chance at this point.
Just a few days before the election, Larry Elder, the GOP frontrunner on the recall effort, followed in former President Donald Trump’s footsteps in making false claims about the election being rigged. Now, considering the incredible margin by which he lost on the recall effort, Elder conceded defeat urging his supporters to be “gracious in defeat.”
Elder, who previously acknowledged Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential elections, reversed course and tweeted that “there were shenanigans in the 2020 presidential election” after facing backlash from Trump supporters. This has prompted some political commentators to remark that it is now impossible in the modern political climate to become a GOP nominee without backing Trump. If it wasn’t before, President Joe Biden’s characterization of Elder as a “clone of Donald Trump” appears even more fitting now.
Biden congratulated Newsom on his victory over the recall stating that this is a “resounding win” for the approach that the two men share towards beating the pandemic.
So, what now? Will Elder fade into the background? Is it safe for California Democrats to now rest easy and move on to watch the unfolding of the “other CA” elections up north on September 20 as spectators? I think not. As mentioned in my previous report, it would be foolish for Newsom and his fellow California Democrats to let their guard down now and carry on their business as usual.
Elder has already indicated his intention to stay in California politics long-term stating that “we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.” California Democrats are well aware of Elder’s extreme views. Elder, who is African-American, wants to ban mask and vaccine mandates, referred to Black Lives Matter as a “bogus” movement, suggests that descendants of “slave-owners” be paid reparations for the government’s forceful taking of their “property” after the civil war, and denies the existence of systemic racism in any form or shape. These are just some of his highlights.
California is a “deep blue state” and Republicans have all but been wiped out of the legislature and the Supreme Court. Elder can dream on about his political future in California, but the GOP does not stand a chance against a Democratic candidate in a regular election in California in the foreseeable future.
However, as mentioned previously, low Democratic voter turnout in recalls is a cause for concern. Newsom may have won now due to his popularity, but any missteps from him from this point forward that make the electorate unhappy may be more than sufficient for another recall effort. That effort might prove successful the next time.
All that is required to trigger a recall is a collection of signatures on a petition that equals only 12% of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election—e.g. approximately 1.5 million signatures of the near 20 million registered voters in the 2018 election.
That is to say, a group constituting a mere 12% of the voters in the previous election can trigger a process to overturn that election wherein 100% of the electorate voted. It is just “that” easy to trigger a recall. And what is the cost of the 2021 recall effort—$276 million. That is the cost imposed by the GOP on the government, despite knowledge that the regular gubernatorial elections are coming up in 2022 anyway.
There are over 160,000 homeless individuals in California, of which over 40,000 are in Los Angeles alone. One might say that Republicans who criticize Democrats on the homelessness issue in California would do well to think about the colossal waste of state funds they just caused.
California is one of only 20 states that permits voters to recall a governor and is among the 49 states that already has an impeachment mechanism. Why then this obsession over a recall mechanism at all, when impeachment works just as well?
As the Washington Post’s Pulitzer-prize winning columnist George Will recently pointed out, “the principle of representation, which is the essence of our republic, is people do not decide issues—they decide who will decide.” In other words, while voters should able to decide who governs their state, populist sentiment should not dictate policies and consequently lead to the removal of an elected official—this should be the job of the voters’ representatives.
With a 12% threshold to trigger a costly recall, voters are empowered to remove a governor from office not necessarily because of misconduct—which is a requirement for impeachment—but merely because of disagreement over policies.
Even if Newsom and other California Democrats cannot agree on whether repealing the recall is the right path to take, it is beyond argument that it is at least the right strategy to take. Elsewhere, the GOP-controlled states have, for lack of a better phrase, gone hog-wild in framing outrageous policies and laws with no proper debate and complete lack of concern for their opponents and constituents.
One might argue why not just increase the signature threshold from 12% to something greater rather than repeal it entirely. That is certainly an option, but why take that route when a majority of the states are doing just fine with just the impeachment mechanism.
The mere threat of an impeachment not too long ago was sufficient to pressure former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to ultimately resign from office. This threat developed as a result of extensive investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James into Cuomo’s conduct while in office. On the other hand, a recall process initiated by voters lacks any form of discipline or accountability—the goal here being removal of an elected official without any stated reason.
Take the case of Oregon, where there have been three attempts to recall Governor Kate Brown, all of which failed because of lack of required number of signatures. Oregon is the only state that lacks an impeachment process. Thus, the only way to remove a governor from office in Oregon is through recall. Odds are individuals will keep trying this wasted effort because of mere disagreement with Brown’s policies.
Article II, §§ 13-19 of the California Constitution contains the relevant provisions governing recall. While it is always harder to repeal a provision of a Constitution as opposed to a legislation, the Democrats have the necessary majority across California to accomplish just this action.
Repealing the recall is not a wild or outrageous idea by any stretch of imagination. As noted, 30 states do not even have such a process. It blows my mind that Democrats have not already taken this step, having controlled the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government since 2011.
California Democrats have the power “right now” to repeal the recall and retain impeachment as the only mode of removing the executive and they would be foolish to not take this step right away. It is time to hammer that final nail in the GOP coffin in California. If the GOP must win, they should be forced to put in the effort to win fairly in a regular election. It should never be this easy to trigger a process to remove an elected executive of a state at a cost of $276 million. To allow this is to encourage, in Will’s words, “‘applied populism,’ which is the belief that the public passions are self-gratifying and they should be translated immediately and directly into policy.”
