San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Washington politicians gear up to help Newsom fend off recall
WASHINGTON — Sacramento may be almost 3,000 miles from Washington, D.C., but that hasn’t prevented California’s recall election from hitting home in the nation’s capital. And there’s consensus: It’s time to get into the game.
California lawmakers aren’t the only ones itching to lend a hand. The sudden urgency to help Newsom extends all the way to the top of the Democratic Party, including President Biden, while Republicans are cautiously gleeful at the prospect of toppling the governor of a state synonymous with liberal politics.
Most of the Democrats in California’s congressional delegation surveyed by The Chronicle said they have plans to, would be happy to, or have already campaigned for Gov. Gavin Newsom to beat back the recall. And most also agree that their biggest opponent isn’t Republican candidates but voter apathy.
On the Republican side of the aisle, almost none of the GOP members of Congress is backing a specific candidate, hoping instead that a wide field can motivate voters against Newsom, with the pieces falling where they may on who will replace him.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, during a visit to Manny’s in S.F. last week, sends texts asking Californians to vote no in the recall.
But for both sides, the focus is the same: turnout.
“This is a gotcha election, a lot of people don’t even know what’s happening,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. “Our turnout is something that you can never take for granted. So we’re going to have to work for it.”
That effort seems to be under way. Newsom announced on Friday that Vice President Kamala Harris, an East Bay native and longtime ally of the governor who represented the state in the U.S. Senate, would appear with him at a campaign event next week.
Biden last week issued his most explicit statement of support to date for the governor, saying that Newsom “knows how to get the job done because he’s been doing it.” He is also said to be exploring an inperson campaign event in California.
High-profile help in the recall has also come to Newsom from outside the state, with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren cutting an early TV ad for for the governor linking the recall to former President Donald Trump and tactics by Republicans nationwide. Most of the Democrats who spoke with The Chronicle remain confident in Newsom and his record, and trust that California voters overall will remain loyal to the Democratic party. They’ve largely adopted Newsom’s talking points that the recall, with its low threshold for signatures to get on the ballot and national Republican funding, is a GOP ploy to upend normal elections.
California Sen. Alex Padilla, who has long been close to Newsom and whom the governor appointed to the Senate to replace Harris, called the recall an “attempted power grab.” He compared it to GOP attempts to undermine faith in the 2020 election — despite repeated and
Vice President Kamala Harris, left, California Sen. Alex Padilla and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are among the high-profile Democrats who have spoken out in recent days in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom as the recall vote approaches.
extensive examinations that have found the results valid and trustworthy — and efforts to change voting laws in ways activists warn could limit ballot access.
“It’s pretty plain and simple: Republicans are trying to subvert our democracy,” Padilla said. “In California, they know they can’t win on a regular election so they’re trying to exploit the recall, to try to grab power. We’re not going to stand for it.”
Many of the lawmakers noted the challenge is voter education, with the election happening by itself at an unusual time of year. Even with ballots mailed to voters’ homes, Democrats will have to be motivated to fill them out and return them, lawmakers said.
Several of the Democrats in the House said they were already working on it. Huffman said he has been hosting a dozen young Democrats participating in a politics fellowship, who have been working the phones and engaging voters on the recall. Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland and Karen Bass of Los Angeles started a group called WAR, for Woman Against the Recall, which is campaigning
for Newsom across the state. Fremont Rep. Ro Khanna said he has been reaching out to the progressive community in Newsom’s favor.
“The polling I have seen shows that it is a dead heat when you look at energized Republican turnout ... so we can’t take this for granted,” Khanna said. “I think this is gonna be a close race, and we’ve got to get our people out.”
San Mateo Rep. Jackie Speier was a bit more sanguine about the outcome: She lamented the cost of the recall, but backed Newsom and predicted “a yawner.”
There were other notable exceptions. Irvine Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat who holds a swing seat and is a darling of the left, said “no comment” when asked about helping Newsom and what Democrats should be doing ahead of the recall. But on Aug. 18, Porter tweeted out support for Newsom and said she’d be engaged in helping him. The governor’s camp noted she had been featured as a backer of their efforts for months.
Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock (Stanislaus County), another
lawmaker defending a purple district seat, pivoted the question about Newsom back to policy, saying he wants to see action, rather than political strategy.
“I think the best way to campaign is actually addressing the core challenges we have in California,” said Harder, who has put out statements pressuring Newsom to do more on water for the Central Valley. “We’re in the midst of a drought, where I think we could use some real state leadership, wildfires that are devastating the state . ... If we can resolve those problems, my hope is that they can create a record that’ll speak for itself.”
The view of the recall dynamics, predictably, is starkly different among Republicans. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), for some time was the only GOP member of Congress to endorse a candidate to replace Newsom, backing former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Then, on Aug. 18, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, RRichvale (Butte County), endorsed conservative radio host Larry Elder.
Issa said he backs Faulconer due to their San Diego connection
— Faulconer was Issa’s mayor — but he doesn’t think other Republicans need to back specific candidates. He said it’s about giving voters choices, and pushed back on the notion that the recall was a GOP ploy.
“I believe in the process of recall, that if there’s a betrayal, for whatever reason, of a trust, for the voters to have that,” Issa said. “To the governor, he sees this as Republicans coming after him. To the voters, this is a referendum on the governor in a state that generically elects Democrats by almost 2 to 1. So it’s not about that, and it shouldn’t be.”
Bakersfield Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who leads the House GOP, said he hasn’t endorsed anyone and doesn’t think Republicans need to gather around one candidate.
“I think the first priority is to get the recall passed,” McCarthy said. “There’s always a special election turnout challenge, but I think more candidates probably help.”