Recall Newsom?

I have long thought that California's voters should do themselves a favor by removing Governor Gavin Newsom from office through a recall election. That said, according to a Bloomberg report, a recall drive there is closing in on success, currently driven in part by problems associated with rollout of the coronavirus vaccines:

Image by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia, license.

A recall effort targeting California Governor Gavin Newsom is escalating and has grown from a quixotic quest among a few Republicans to a campaign that stands a chance of coming to a vote in the Democrat-dominated state. The effort appears unlikely to succeed in removing Newsom, a Democrat, from office. But a vote would be bruising for a governor who has been cited as a possible future presidential candidate and has faced crises from the day he was inaugurated in 2019, from devastating wildfires and widespread blackouts to the Covid-19 pandemic. [bold added]

A recall election, should one occur, would take place only about a year before Newsom would face reelection in 2022, and Newsom -- not too surprisingly given how far left the electorate is -- seems to enjoy enough support that he would probably survive that vote to complete his term.

Thus the effort would be largely symbolic -- and we already have a preview of how Democrats and the leftist news media will spin it, should Newsom run for President after being recalled:

"Just like Trump refuses to accept and respect the will of the voters, Newt Gingrich, Kevin Faulconer, and other Trump supporters want California taxpayers to waste $100 million on a special election redo, mere months before a regularly scheduled election," said [Dan] Newman, the governor's spokesman.

That said, I think there is still value in getting this onto the ballot: In other states -- which mostly did not have to suffer under Newsom's policies, and in which voters will not necessarily dismiss a recall as having a purely partisan motivation -- the recall will provide his opponents with the perfect opening to bring Newsom's failed policies up and attack him on those grounds.

Good! One of the last things this country needs is a President Newsom.

That said, the timing of the recall election, should it occur, would limit the benefit of Newsom's removal from office -- if that were the result. Furthermore, a Wall Street Journal editorial cautions that such an election could actually help Newsom and damage the reputation of the GOP within that state.

Those for whom Newsom's unfitness for office is obvious may thus find the case for recalling him less clear-cut.

-- CAV