Newsom survives ouster attempt
Calif. aims to tighten recall rules
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom beat back a recall election that could have removed him, his fellow Democrats in the state Legislature said Wednesday they will push for changes to make it more difficult to challenge a sitting governor.
Those reforms could include increasing the number of signatures needed to force a recall election, raising the standard to require wrongdoing on the part of the officeholder and changing the process that could permit someone with a small percentage of votes to replace the state’s top elected official.
“I think the recall process has been weaponized,” Newsom said a day after his decisive victory. He added that the recall rules affect not just governors but school boards, city councils, county supervisors and district attorneys, notably in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where liberal prosecutors are being challenged.
The governor noted that California has one of the nation’s lowest thresholds for the number of signatures needed to trigger a recall election. Proponents had to collect nearly 1.5 million signatures out of California’s 22 million registered voters in their bid to oust him, or 12% of the electorate who voted him into office in 2018.
Newsom declined to say what reforms he favors, saying he is too close to the process as a recall target who could someday face another attempt to remove him.
Other Democrats were more specific.
“We need to create a system where a small, small, small minority of Californians can’t create, can’t initiate a recall that the California taxpayers spent almost $300 million on and that frankly distracts and really has an impact on our ability to govern for nine months,” Assemblyman Marc Berman said.
State Sen. Josh Newman, who himself was recalled in 2018 before regaining his seat two years later, separately said he will propose two constitutional amendments: One to raise the number of required signatures and another to have the lieutenant governor finish the governor’s term if a recall succeeds.
Newsom on Tuesday became only the second governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall; the other was Wisconsin Republican Scott Walker. The win cements him as a prominent figure in national Democratic politics.
With an estimated 70% of ballots counted, the “no” response to the question of whether to recall Newsom was ahead by a 28-point margin. That lead was built on votes cast by mail and in advance of Tuesday’s inperson balloting. While likely to shrink somewhat in the days ahead as votes cast at polling places are counted, Newsom’s lead cannot be overcome.
Republican talk radio host Larry Elder was the runaway leader among potential replacement candidates.