Recall Newsom Election Is a Foregone Conclusion

I love the smell of inevitability in the morning, and an election to Recall Gavin Newsom just became inevitable. The final count of verified signatures by the California Secretary of State: 1.7 million.

Confirmed by the local news.

NEW: The campaign to recall Governor Newsom announces that the California Secretary of State confirmed today that the campaign collected 1,719,943 verified signatures, which is more than 200,000 over the 1.5 million that was required. Goes to the ballot later this year.

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 6, 2021

And the data geeks.

Final valid signature count on the Gavin Newsom recall:

1,719,943

Opponents hoping to short circuit the recall need to convince 224,234 voters to withdraw their signatures by June 8th, which seems like a tall order.https://t.co/Khb5QWeetD pic.twitter.com/zfitjtWWip

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) May 6, 2021

The California Department of Finance is already arguing about how much a Recall election is going to cost, claiming upwards of 400 million. Back in March, when every Democrat was still in denial, they were claiming 81 million, and Rep. Karen Bass (D-BLM) came out and said it would be 100 million <insert *eye-roll* emoji here>.

.@KarenBassTweets organized black elected officials across the CA to oppose the recall of @GavinNewsom.

She says it could cost taxpayers $100 million.

"This is a Republican plot right out of Trump's playbook…if you can't win the legitimate way, you win the illegitimate way" pic.twitter.com/09qK3I31cN

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) March 16, 2021

RedState Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar wrote a piece back in March, assessing how much His Hairfulness’ incompetence has already cost the State:

Final numbers won’t be available probably for years, but the state has lost between $11 and $31 billion in unemployment fraud in 2020 alone. (They’ve confirmed the $11 billion number, but are investigating $19 billion more. As of now.)

Then we have Gavin’s Chinese mask fiasco. As we reported nearly a year ago, Newsom entered into a no-bid $1 billion contract for KN95 masks from a Chinese manufacturer with known quality control issues, BYD. A senior BYD executive in California, where the company builds defect-riddled electric buses for public transportation agencies, contributed $40,000 to Newsom’s campaign. As it turns out, the company wasn’t able to deliver the 200 million masks a month it promised (shocking!) and missed NIOSH certification deadlines. Newsom refused to take advantage of that contract breach to drive down the price; instead, he still paid the $3.30/mask price in the contract at a time when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was purchasing masks from Honeywell for $0.79/each.

Breaking out the handy-dandy calculator, Newsom overpaid by $2.51/mask. Going by the numbers in belatedly-provided public records, California was set to purchase 300 million KN95 masks from BYD. Newsom wasted more than $750,000,000 (that’s $750 million) in taxpayer dollars in that transaction. Heck, that pays for at least 7.5 recall elections.

Now, if we use the Democrats’ new inflated number of 400 million, then that means it would still pay for 1.5 recall elections.

All we need is one! Nah, California, I think we’re good.

According to Bloomberg, Some California counties are putting in a request for the cost of the Recall to be folded into the budget. Meaning, Newsom would pay for his own ouster <insert *rolling laughter* emoji here>:

California election officials are preparing to make a delicate request of Gov. Gavin Newsom: They want state dollars to pay for the election that could kick him out of office.

A representative for county officials on Tuesday will make a plea for reimbursement of expenses from a possible statewide recall election at an Assembly budget subcommittee hearing. Those costs could reach $400 million, according to an estimate from the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.

“This is sort of an awkward conversation to have with a governor about funding his own recall,” said Natalie Adona, assistant clerk-recorder for the Nevada County, Calif., Registrar of Voters.

Both the National and California Democrats are now on the struggle bus with Hair Gel, so they made attempts at their convention to refine the Recall messaging and get away from calling it a “Republican coup.”

For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic establishment have painted the effort to recall the governor as a Republican power grab fueled by supporters of former President Trump and hard-right activists.

But a divide is emerging among Democrats over whether this attack is the smartest approach now that the measure has garnered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Some party leaders are arguing that a wiser tactic is to recognize that some Democratic and independent voters signed recall petitions because they were frustrated by the hardships caused by the economic and school closures during the pandemic.

Christine Pelosi, who just finished a 10-year term as chair of the party’s women’s caucus, said she knows of Democrats from the Marina District in San Francisco as well as from the rural edges of the state who signed the recall petitions. By not recognizing the validity of their hurt and instead focusing on partisanship, Pelosi said, recall opponents are turning off Democratic and independent voters who could be brought back into the fold.

“We have to begin with compassionate empathy for the terrible year they had,” said Pelosi, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and a member of the Democratic National Committee. “If we’re not speaking to the reality of people’s truth, then they’re going to become engaged against us.”

Say what you will about House Speaker Cruella and her equally evil brood, they seem to be smart strategists; so if the daughter recognizes that this “Republican coup” and “right-wing extremist” strategy is on the losing side, Hair Gel might want to pay attention.

Pelosi was the most prominent delegate who urged party officials during their virtual convention on Sunday to strip language that referred to the recall as “Republican” and “partisan” from a resolution opposing the effort to oust Newsom from office.

49 percent of delegates to the CA Democratic Convention voted to reject Newsom's "Republican Recall" moniker. This Governor is too partisan for even his party's leading activists.

— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) May 2, 2021

The effort was unsuccessful, with 593 delegates voting to eliminate the descriptions and 627 voting to keep it.

You assume that only Trump supporting racists could have a valid reason for supporting the recall?

— JSM (@JamesMullen) May 6, 2021

And so, His Hairfulness and his party will continue to malign and ignore their own base, who, according to the County counts, signed the petition as gleefully as Republicans and No Party Preference folks.

Split emerging among California Democrats over most effective argument against Newsom recall https://t.co/86VUg4uYqr That's goddamn right, Christine Pelosi. But I'm done with your party after what you and those malingering prima donnas did to the schoolchildren. Just despicable.

— Jeremy Goldberg (@jer30gol) May 6, 2021

Not to mention the thousands of children who are still out of school, and the millions of unemployed who still have not received benefits.

months ago Gavin Newsom bragged about his "plan" to re-open schools. latest data on in-person learning:

16% of California students. 16%#RecallGavinNewsom
▶️ https://t.co/sZBQEJdrvj

— steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) May 6, 2021