Effort to recall Calif. governor picks up steam

LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a rough year.

The next one might be even tougher, as a recall effort appears to be gaining momentum, fueled partly by outrage over the first-term Democrat dining with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling state residents to spurn social gatherings and stay home.

It’s not uncommon in California for residents to seek recalls, but they rarely get on the ballot. 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 for his aggressive approach to the coronavirus in the spring, when he issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order.

Now there is growing public angst over subsequent health orders, 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 confidante who also is a lobbyist, emerged showing the governor without a mask at a time when he was imploring people to refrain from socializing with friends and wear a face covering.

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.

The prospect of a recall election is reviving memories of California’s circuslike 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 far stronger position to survive a challenge compared with the political climate 17 years ago when Davis was pushed out.