The effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is now under 100,000 signatures away from reaching the required threshold, making it likely the governor will have to face a recall election bid.
From Fox News:
As of Sunday, Recall Gavin 2020 – one of two committees organizing the effort – says petitioners have gathered more than 1.4 million signatures out of the necessary 1,495,709.
The campaign will need to gather signatures well above the number to compensate for the signatures that will inevitably be invalidated. Their deadline is March 17.
Anne Dunsmore, who heads one of the organizations leading the effort, said it was “highly possible we could get to 1.5 or 1.6 (million signatures) by the end of this week,” noting that the goal overall is to collect 2 million.
If enough valid signatures are collected, California’s Lt. Governor would then be forced to select a date to hold the recall election.
“Once that election (date) is selected, the ballot will have two things on it. One, a thumbs up or a thumbs down on the recall, and (two), the replacement,” Dunsmore said, adding: “If 82% of the (1.8 million) signatures that we submit are valid than we only need 1.8 million signatures. We’re aiming for 2 million. So I think we should have more than enough.”
Dunsmore believes the effort has now cross from “possibility to probability,” citing the infamous French Laundry Dining incident as a turning point in the campaign to recall Newsom.
“I think prior to that and even during the French Laundry (incident), his staff reportedly was sitting there saying, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and he was thinking, ‘I need to work about it,’” Dunsmore said. “I think his very obvious default is to go to political messaging rather than policy planning. And this is he started to have problems because it has created inconsistent decisions, and hypocritical decisions, and very transparently poor decisions.”
Newsom was caught dining at the up-scale restaurant maskless with multiple households, despite at the time imposing some of the most strict pandemic response measures in the country.
The photographs of Newsom quickly went viral, causing the governor to face accusations of hypocrisy that have served to help the recall effort.
