Even with rule altering, recall remains close

Earlier this summer, once enough valid signatures had been gathered to put before voters the question of recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democratic state lawmakers decided to change state law to give Newsom the upper hand.

The reasoning, as was recently reported by The Sacramento Bee, was to make the election earlier to give Newsom’s political opponents less time to mobilize, to reap the benefits of what was supposed to be a roaring postCOVID-19 economy, to be rewarded by happy parents who would have just been able to get their kids back in school and to miss the worst of the fire season.

What a difference a few months makes.

COVID-19 cases are surging, the state’s unemployment rate remains alarmingly high, unemployed Californians are still struggling to receive benefits from a broken state Employment Development Department that’s bogged down with fraud and incompetence, school reopenings are a muddled mess with a deeply polarizing mask mandate, and Northern California is already suffering one of the worst fires seasons in history and fire season has only just begun.

To change the election calendar, Democrats had to amend rules they set in place just a few years ago, the last time they tried tweaking recall rules to keep one of their fellows in office.

Back then, in 2017, Democrats instead tried delaying a vote to recall then-state Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton. Their aim was to put the Newman recall election on the primary election ballot when turnout would be higher, which, according to conventional wisdom, would help Newman and Democrats.

Unfortunately for Newman, he was recalled despite the rules changes (though he was ultimately sent back to Sacramento a few years later).

Jack Citrin, a UC Berkeley political science professor, told the Associated Press that Democratic lawmakers’ changes to recall rules to benefit Newsom would only drive the public’s cynical attitude towards politics, because “(t)hey’re trying to create a situation that is most favorable for the partisan outcome that they favor.”

This editorial board has already endorsed recalling Newsom and electing talk radio personality Larry Elder, in part as a response to this type of corruption, which has become all too common among Democrats in Sacramento, who have completely unchecked power over the state.

“Democrats control every statewide office and hold legislative supermajorities,” we wrote. “Direct democracy remains the People’s sole remaining check on their power.”

Newsom may yet beat the recall, but polls are closer than anyone would have expected months ago. California Democrats, who every year arrogantly believe the government will solve every problem in the world, are once again finding that they aren’t as good at engineering society as they think they are.

If Newsom loses, we expect Democrats to tweak the recall rules once again. In fact, we are already seeing signs that they will, and this time it will almost certainly be done in such a way as to avoid Democrats being recalled altogether.