California Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a rough year. The next one might be even tougher for Joe Biden’s top surrogate.
A recall effort appears to be gaining momentum, fueled partly by outrage over the Democratic governor dining with friends at an opulent restaurant while ordering state residents to spurn social gatherings and stay home.
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It’s not uncommon in California for residents to seek recalls but they rarely get on the ballot. Even fewer succeed. Several launched against Newsom faded but another attempt is drawing greater attention as his fortunes change while he enters a critical stretch in his governorship.
Newsom received high praise by the media for his aggressive approach to the coronavirus last spring, when he issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order. Now there is growing public angst over subsequent health orders that have shuttered schools and businesses and a massive unemployment benefits fraud scandal, while a public shaming continues for his ill-advised dinner at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, an establishment that features a white truffle and caviar dinner for $1,200 per person.
Photos of the dinner — a birthday party for a Newsom’s political lobbyist friend — emerged showing the governor without a mask at a time when he was imploring people not to socialize with friends and wear a face covering when going out and around others.
Recall organizers say they have collected more than half the nearly 1.5 million petition signatures needed to place the recall on the ballot, and they have until mid-March to hit the required threshold.
Randy Economy, a senior adviser to the recall effort, said there was a surge of several hundred thousand petition signatures after Newsom’s restaurant debacle last month. “It has resonated. It’s about the arrogance of power,” he said.
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Newsom appears to be getting his campaign ready by bringing in top Democrats from around the country. He has hired veteran Capitol insider Jim DeBoo as a senior adviser, which could help him repair frayed relationships with legislators and bring sharper political instincts to his office. Newsom also just named Dee Dee Myers, a former Warner Bros. executive and White House press secretary for President Bill Clinton, as director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.
The prospect of a recall election is reviving memories of California’s circus-like 2003 recall, in which voters installed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor after deposing the unpopular Democrat Gray Davis. There were 135 candidates on the ballot, including Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and former child actor Gary Coleman.
If the recall qualifies, Newsom would be forced to fend off rivals in the midst of a pandemic that has cost the state millions of jobs, cored government budgets, and upended life for nearly 40 million residents.
“He’s got a plate of Biblical plagues staring him in the face,” said Garry South, who was Davis’ chief political adviser.
Still, South sees Newsom in a strong position to survive a challenge. A Republican hasn’t won a statewide race in California in 14 years, and there is no Hollywood superstar emerging as a potential candidate.
“A recall (election) is never good, obviously,” South said. But “the Republicans are in a far weaker position” than in 2003.
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Newsom’s challenging year already has encouraged Republicans who have signaled they are likely candidates, including former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Newsom’s 2018 rival, businessman John Cox.
Recall organizer Orrin Heatlie, a retired county sheriff’s sergeant, predicted they would gather the needed signatures, though added an infusion of cash would help. Meanwhile, the effort has picked up endorsements from two prominent Republicans, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
State records show just under 300,000 signatures have been filed, though Economy said another 500,000 are in the pipeline with county election officials.
The group began gathering signatures in June and have about three months to hit the required 1,495,709 signatures. They will need a surplus since some signatures are sure to be disqualified.
The 2003 recall took off after Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a car-alarm magnate, poured $1.7 million of his fortune into the campaign to get the proposal on the ballot.
Organizers this year estimate they would need $2.8 million to hire professionals to gather another 800,000 signatures.
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State records show Cox donated $50,000 to the recall campaign in October, but at this point he has no plans to invest more.
“I’m not going to be Darrell Issa,” he said. “If there were a whole bunch of other people that stepped up and helped, I’d probably help some more.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article