Recall: Potential GOP candidates help fund recall campaign.
SACRAMENTO — Some potential Republican candidates hoping to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom aren’t just rooting for a recall to qualify for the ballot — they’re opening their wallets to fund the effort.
A few of the largest contributors writing fivefigure checks could wind up being replacement candidates in a recall vote. Tops among them is John
Cox, the Republican millionaire defeated by Newsom in the 2018 election, who has contributed $60,000 to the recall. He gave $50,000 in October, when the effort lacked its current momentum, and an additional $10,000 this month.
“I did it the earliest of anybody,” Cox said of his fellow Republican contenders for governor. “I’m doing this for the people of California, including my own children. I’m going to do whatever it takes to turn around this state.”
He said he decided to help fund the recall last summer as blackouts and a recordbreaking wildfire season plagued the state. Cox said Newsom’s rhetoric about climate change glossed over the situation because “the state was in crisis and is still in crisis.”
Cox, a tax attorney and real estate investor in the San Diego area, already has declared his candidacy in both the 2022 election and in a recall, should the effort qualify. He spent nearly $6 million of his fortune on his 2018 campaign and has already pledged to spend $2 million on another attempt.
But Cox is expected to face several Republican opponents in what’s likely to be a crowded recall field. Another potential contender, state Assembly Member Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County), has contributed $10,984 to the recall from his campaign account.
Kiley has been at the forefront of the movement for months and even wrote a book, “Recall Newsom: The Case Against America’s Most Corrupt Governor.” He gave the bulk of his contribution, $10,000, to the recall in February.
“I was just kind of inspired to do whatever I could ... in
helping them get across the finish line,” Kiley said. “It’s just an amazing level of citizen activity that is brimming.”
While Kiley said he doesn’t plan to run, his name has been mentioned in Republican circles, particularly after he helped lead a lawsuit challenging the governor over his executive orders that created pandemicera shutdowns.
“You never say never in politics, but it is certainly not my current intention,” Kiley said of running against Newsom.
Organizers must submit about 1.5 million valid signatures of registered voters by Wednesday to qualify the recall for the ballot. They say they have collected more than 2.1 million total signatures.
Newsom has called the recall a Republican “power grab.” On Monday, he launched a campaign to oppose the effort, boosted by a $350,000 infusion from the California Democratic Party, including a $100,000
inkind contribution.
Dan Newman, consultant for Newsom’s planned reelection campaign, said challengers backing the recall are “a collection of farright Republicans who are crawling over each other” for Donald Trump’s support.
The former president has been silent on the recall cam
paign and has not endorsed a potential replacement candidate, though he did endorse Cox in the 2018 primary, when other Republicans were in the race.
Republicans are already squabbling over whom the party might back against Newsom in a recall, infighting that has pitted Cox against other
possible candidates.
Two additional contenders are former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who launched a campaign for the 2022 election and the pending recall, and Richard Grenell, who held several positions in Trump’s administration and has hinted he might run.
Neither Faulconer nor Gre
nell has made any contributions to the two committees leading the recall effort, according to available finance reports.