Hindsight experts can say that our recall election’s outcome was a foregone conclusion – that the GOP’s top candidate, Larry Elder, was a polarizing demagogue and that Democrats have an overwhelming majority. However, “...a few weeks ago the polls were tied. Then we seriously mobilized, and we pushed Newsom ahead by 15 points. That’s a huge shift in a short time. We have real power when we stand up and fight.”
That said, all our phonebanking, textbanking and canvassing couldn’t stop the WASTE OF OVER A QUARTER OF A BILLION OF OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS (now estimated at +$300 million) on a GOP temper tantrum when we have sick people to treat, homeless people to house, school children to help after a year of COVID restrictions, and fire victims who are starting from scratch.
We need to update our recall laws immediately. CA’s recall madness, where this recent election day was also the deadline for a failed recall attempt against a county supervisor, doesn’t happen across the nation. For example, no matter how many signatures a petition to recall Ron DeSantis collects – his state doesn’t allow recalls. In fact, only 20 states do, and of those, eight require a serious act of malfeasance or a violation of their oath of office. We don’t. What we do have is a very low signature requirement, and a “simultaneous”-style recall,” where the lieutenant governor is ignored, and an outside candidate can take over the state with a minority of voters. These conditions make recalls the easiest pathway for the GOP, whose policies and values are completely at odds with most California voters, to “rig the system and create a low turnout election where they have a better chance” to grab the governor’s office. Thanks to the best intentions of former Gov. Hiram Johnson in 1911 – every governor since 1960 has faced at least one recall attempt.
But change is coming, if we fight for it. Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber stated: “This system is over 100 years old. We haven’t revised it in 100 years.” SB-660, a bill that bans paying petition circulators for each signature they obtain for recall efforts, state and local initiatives, just passed and is waiting for Newsom’s signature. This will eliminate at least one incentive to deceive voters to collect more signatures.
Reform of the recall process is popular. UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies published a poll this week that found three out of four voters support recall elections but agree significant reform is needed. Let’s make this happen!
