Anti-recall
Supporters of Gavin Newsom gather to motivate voters to retain embattled governor
More than a dozen supporters of California Governor Gavin Newsom convened on Courthouse Square in downtown Sonora Tuesday morning for a roadside demonstration against the looming recall election set for Sept. 14.
The group out in the park weren’t protestors. They were rather a group of liberally minded locals (some of them Democratic Party affiliates) seeking to resuscitate an apathetic electorate whose participation could keep Newsom from being recalled.
“We’re trying to get the word out,” said Elaine Hagen, a progressive activist from Tuolumne. “It is close in the polls, scary close. We have too much to lose for people to not show up to this.”
Most at the demonstration carried signs with mottos on them such as “Vote No Recall” or “Republican Power Grab.”
Only out there for about an hour from 7:30-8:30 a.m., the 14 individuals (all masked) were met with a mixture of apathy, resentment or support, depending on the occupants of the cars that drove by.
A northbound driver on Washington Street honked their car horn and raised their fist in solidarity. The demonstrators cheered.
A few seconds later, a truck with a American flag on the rear window drove southbound. The husband and wife raised their middle fingers simultaneously, and kept them up, as they drove out of sight of the demonstrators.
“Thank you! Have a good day,” yelled Paul Bailey, of
Twain Harte, secretary of the Tuolumne County Democratic Central Committee.
“I support Governor Gavin Newsom,” he said. “That’s why I’m here.”
The uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic have made some Democratic operatives concerned that the recall could be successful, even in a deepblue state which Newsom won with 62% of the vote in 2018. Polling has indicated the election is almost even, with nearly half of Californians potentially supporting Newsom being unseated.
The demonstrators on Tuesday represented a minority political ideology in historically red and right-leaning Tuolumne County, but it was an indication that there may be some grassroots pushback against the whirlwind recall effort which earned 1,719,943 valid signatures (more than the 1,495,970 necessary to trigger a recall election) by the March 17 filing deadline.
“We’re a changing demographic,” Claudia Puccinelli, of Twain Harte, said. “We’ve always been here, were just silent. But we’re not staying silent anymore.”
However, the impending recall election remains polarizing and emotional locally.
A driver hauling a wreckedout vintage car slowed beside the protestors, causing a procession of commuters to stop behind him. He pleaded from out of the window, “please,
please look into who Gavin Newsom is… Newsom is a horrible governor.”
Some demonstrators acknowledged the highprofile criticisms of the Newsom administration, most of them related to COVID-19, such as claims of hobbled small business operations by lockdowns, mandated distance learning for children, or Newsom’s infamous maskless lobbyist dinner at the high-cuisine Yountville restaurant, The French Laundry.
Still, they said they were motivated to get out the call to vote by the very real possibility that their progressive policy goals and aspirations could institutionally vanish if Newsom were unseated and a Republican won a plurality of the vote.
“He’s not perfect,” Ann Leonard, of Sonora, said, “but we have one of the largest economies in the world and a surplus.”
Dee Keshner, chairperson of the Democratic Women’s Coalition of Tuolumne County, which organized the event, added, “I think my biggest concern is someone with a relatively small percentage of votes could become governor.”
Diego Martinez, a Republican bail bondsman from Sonora, has made it among the 46 candidates on the ballot, which includes 24 declared Republicans and nine declared Democrats.
The ballot features recognizable names in California Republican gubernatorial politics: John Cox, who won the 2018 Republication nomination and lost to Newsom; Kevin Faulconer, former mayor of San Diego; Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympian and reality TV star who has started her own unexpected and first-time political campaign; and Larry Elder, a conservative radio host and author.
“It doesn’t sound like anyone has a great big percentage,” demonstrator Joan Montesano, of Sonora, said. “None of them are appealing.”
The demonstrators championed various political causes with their presence there — climate change, health care and COVID-19 safety measures among them — and cast the recall as motivated by political opportunism.
“The only way a Republican is going to win in California is to sneak it in,” Marvin Keshner, a participant in local Democrat organizations, said. “We want to make sure Democrats are not complacent. They need to ‘stop the steal’ and make sure Republicans don’t sneak something past them.”
The official ballot will include two questions. The first will ask if Newsom should be recalled or removed as governor, and the next will include the candidates.
If more than 50% vote “yes” on the first question, the person with the most votes in the second category will be the new governor, even if they do not earn a majority.
Debi Bautista, registrar of voters for the county, said voters are free to vote on one or both of the measures.
Both will be tabulated, Bautista said, even if it comes to pass that the eligibility of the second measure is not ratified by a majority vote on the first measure.
On the statewide front, the Democratic Partyfunded political action committee “Stop the Republican Recall of Governor Gavin Newsom,” characterized the recall effort as driven by a “partisan, Republican coalition of national Republicans, anti-vaxxers, Qanon conspiracy theorists, anti-immigrant activists and Trump supporters.”
Newsom aimed a tweet at Republicans on Tuesday morning, asserting that they were against COVID-19 vaccinations, believed climate change was fake, that “women shouldn’t control their own bodies” and “gun violence isn’t a problem.”
“Here’s how we stop them in CA,” he tweeted. “[Get] vaccinated… vote NO on September 14th & reject the Republican led recall.”
According to some news reports, Newsom’s administration has called for voters to only vote “no” on the recall and not include a vote for a candidate on the second measure.
Anti-establishment fervor reached a fever pitch during the COVID-19 pandemic, aided also by the political upheaval which arose from the election of President Joe Biden and Black Lives Matter movement.
Bautista said the election will cost the county an estimated $206,750, mostly due to staffing voting centers for a required period before the election on Sept. 14. The total cost statewide has been estimated to be as much as $276 million.
The Elections Office in the County Administration Center at 2 S. Green St. in Sonora will also be open for early voting from Aug. 16 through Election Day during business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
Bautista said the county is required to keep at least one vote center open 11 days before election day. She plans for the county Elections Office in Sonora to be open Sept. 4-6; the Tuolumne Memorial Hall Sept. 7-10; and Twain Harte Bible Church, Groveland Library, Tuolumne Memorial Hall and the Jamestown Community Hall from Sept. 11-13.
On Election day, all vote centers and the county office will be open to voting from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
All voters will receive mail-in ballots, but they can also vote in person at the vote centers.
Bautista said ballots were dropped in Sacramento on Monday morning, and she expects them to be delivered to county voters between Wednesday and Friday.
“I’m really proud of our office that we got the ballots out early,” she said. “The people have a little more time to vote.”
Filled out ballots can also be taken to dropoff boxes at the Mi-wuk Village branch library, in Twain Harte by the Twain Harte Pharmacy, the Willow Springs Clubhouse in Soulsbyville, The Junction shopping center in East Sonora, the Tuolumne County Library in Sonora, Columbia Elementary, the Groveland branch library and at Rocca Park in Jamestown.
The recall election of former Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 had 70% turnout out of 31,000 registered voters in the county at the time. The most recent election on the failed Measure V fire tax had 42% turnout, while the 2020 presidential election had a recordsetting 88% turnout.
There are currently almost 36,000 registered voters in the county. Bautista predicted previously that turnout for the Sept. 14 recall election would likely be about 70%.