GOP seeks legislative leverage with recall
Rookie officeholder target of unprecedented campaign
When Orange County Democrat Josh Newman won a tight state Senate race in November, he thought his future was clear.
But that was then. Now, just a few months later, the rookie officeholder is facing an unprecedented recall effort that could not only end his political career but also cost Democrats their undisputed control of the state Legislature.
State GOP officials said last week that they have collected nearly 85,000 raw signatures calling for the Fullerton Democrat’s ouster. They need 63,593 valid signatures to force a recall election.
Republicans and Democrats already are raising money, threatening lawsuits and preparing for a battle that will stretch well into next year.
If Newman can be replaced by a Republican, that ends the Democrats’ 27-member, twothirds majority in the state Senate and gives GOP legislators bargaining power they now lack, said Steve Stanbrough, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton.
“It’s about the supermajority,” he said. “But
not only that, it’s a chance for Republicans to reclaim a district they thought they weren’t going to lose.”
Newman had the political misfortune of being on the winning end of April’s 27-11 vote to approve Gov. Jerry Brown’s $52 billion transportation package, which included a 12-cents-a gallon gas tax increase and a boost in the vehicle tax.
The measure passed on a near party-line vote, with Democrats again taking advantage of their Republicanproof supermajority in both the state Senate and Assembly to push a controversial measure past the futile objections of GOP legislators and straight to the governor’s desk.
This time, though, Republicans and their antitax allies decided to fight back.
“If we had the resources, there would be a lot of recall efforts,” said Jon Coupal, president of the antitax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and a leader of the recall drive. “But we have to go after the most vulnerable.”
That would be Newman, a 54-year-old Democrat in a historically Republican county who won his first try for office in November, beating GOP Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang by only 2,498 votes out of 317,962 cast.
“I had the misunderstanding that I had been elected to a four-year term,” a bemused Newman said in an interview. “I assumed naively ... that just voting wasn’t sufficient grounds for a recall.”
Not in California, where all that’s needed to start a recall petition are the signatures of 10 registered voters and a 200-word statement of the reason for the recall.
The case against Newman stated in the petition is pretty straightforward, if more than a bit florid.
Newman “was the deciding vote in Sacramento to increase the gas tax and the car tax costing families an extra $500 a year,” the petition states. “Josh Newman should be recalled immediately and replaced by a senator that shares our values.”
The written response from Newman’s supporters also didn’t spare the adjectives.
“The same out-of-town, hyper-partisan special interests who opposed Josh’s election ... are cynically misrepresenting Josh’s support for sorely needed local road repairs as a pretext for removing him from office,” they wrote.
While the recall petition focuses on Newman’s transportation bill vote, Republicans and antitax activists don’t deny that it’s the chance to dump the Democratic supermajority that’s powering the effort to oust the freshman state senator.
“The Democrats’ supermajority produces a conga line of tax increases,” said Coupal of the taxpayers organization.
Republicans already are looking past Newman. Carl DeMaio, a San Diego radio talk show host and former city councilman, helped start the recall effort and suggests it could be the first of many.
In an April 25 post on his blog, DeMaio said recalling Newman would be a first step.
“Then we will demand that California Democrats repeal the Car and Gas Tax Hikes or we will file additional Recall Elections against more of their members,” he wrote.
The Republican Party has already put $432,000 into the recall effort, with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association dropping in $50,000 and DeMaio’s Reform California group providing $30,000.
Voters “have made their opposition to Newman’s vote on the gas tax and car tax increases very clear,” Jim Brulte, chairman of the state Republican Party, said in a statement. “The speed with which voters signed the petitions is a testament to the anger they feel.”
Democrats and their allies won’t lose the supermajority without a fight. As of June 27, the California Democratic Party has given $152,000 to Newman’s effort to block the recall. The California Teachers Association has kicked in $250,000, while a variety of unions have put in another $180,000.
On both sides, there’s probably plenty more campaign cash to come before any recall election.
When that election might happen, though, is another question.
Last month, Democrats showed just how useful that GOP-proof majority can be, passing a bill over loud Republican objections that could make it much easier for Newman to win a recall election.
It’s virtually a given that Republicans will collect the signatures needed to force the recall vote before the Oct. 16 deadline. Under current state rules, that would set a special recall election for early next year.
But the Democrats’ SB96, which was signed by the governor Tuesday, retroactively extends the time needed to approve even ongoing recalls like Newman’s, which almost certainly would move the recall vote to next year’s June primary.
“A low turnout special election typically favors Republicans, who are more likely to vote, and the recall organizers, who are more enthusiastic,” said Stambrough of Cal State Fullerton. “But the June primary will be all about the Democrats running for governor, which will bring their voters out.”
Republicans, with no way to block the Democrats’ bill, could do little more than stamp their collective feet, cry foul and threaten legal action.
“There’s something seriously unseemly about changing election rules in the middle of an election cycle,” Coupal said.
Democrats have their own concerns. Last month, attorneys for Newman filed complaints with the state attorney general and local district attorneys arguing that groups collecting signatures for the recall are telling people that the petition “will stop the car tax.”
That’s not going to happen. The governor signed the transportation bill in April and it would take a separate ballot measure to repeal it.
The growing furor around the recall effort has been a political education for Newman, a businessman who founded a nonprofit group to provide job opportunities for young military veterans.
“From 1990 to 1994 I lived in San Francisco, so I was called ‘San Francisco politician Josh Newman,’ ” he said. “Now I guess I’m ‘tax-raiser Josh Newman.’ ”
There’s not much he can do until the recall election campaign begins, Newman admitted.
“I believe when it comes to a vote, the voters in my district won’t be fooled,” he said. “All I can do is explain to voters why I supported the gas tax ... and show them what I’ve done for the district.”
“I had the misunderstanding that I had been elected to a fouryear term. I assumed naively ... that just voting wasn’t sufficient grounds for a recall.” State Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerson (Orange County)