Newsom Facing Another Recall Petition, Possibly Setting Up Another Costly Campaign for the Coast Governor

Governor Newsom is facing a new recall petition in his home state of California, even as he is positioning himself as a top Biden 2024 surrogate and likely 2028 presidential candidate. The effort to remove Mr. Newsom from office will focus heavily on recent policy decisions made by the governor and overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature that has led to an historic budget deficit. Politico first reported that the recall campaign was being organized by conservatives in the state. The governor’s office will officially be served recall papers on Monday. “Gavin Newsom has abandoned the state to advance his presidential ambitions, leaving behind a $73 billion budget deficit and a public safety, immigration and education crisis,” a spokeswoman for the recall group Rescue California, Anne Dunsmore, said. “California needs a full-time governor who is fully focused on the serious problems the state and its citizens are facing,” she said. “This may be our last opportunity to rescue and restore our state, while we highlight for the rest of the country the destruction Newsom has left in his wake.”A spokesman for Mr. Newsom, Nathan Click, says of the recall campaign that the governor is “taking it seriously.”“These Trump Republicans are targeting Governor Newsom because he is out there defending democracy and fighting for the reelection of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He’s not going to be distracted from that fight. Democracy’s on the ballot, and he’s going to keep fighting,” Mr. Click told Politico.Some issues that could arise during the campaign include the recent decision to begin offering taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants, the recent push for reparations in the state, and other spending decisions that have brought California’s budget to deficit from surplus in just six years. According to the California secretary of state’s office, proponents of a recall petition must garner nearly 1.5 million signatures in order to force a statewide recall election. Mr. Newsom has faced a number of recall petitions over the years. The only successful petition that garnered enough signatures to actually force a statewide vote came in 2021, which the governor said was illegitimate at the time because of a pandemic-related extension to the signature-gathering deadline. During the last recall campaign, there was a moment in statewide polling that appeared to show Mr. Newsom narrowly losing his office. During June and July of 2021, the “vote yes” to recall campaign was polling well above 40 percent. In the end, when the September vote took place, Mr. Newsom handily beat the recall campaign, winning 62 percent to 38 percent. The 2021 campaign was costly for both Mr. Newsom and his opponents, however, as well as the state of California. The state spent more than $250 million to administer the campaign, and the pro- and anti-recall campaigns raised nearly $150 million combined.

Newsom Facing Another Recall Petition, Possibly Setting Up Another Costly Campaign for the Coast Governor

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