CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“NEWSOM
RECALLS UNJUSTIFIED; GOING NOWHERE SO FAR”
They’re
not exactly ubiquitous, like other initiative petition carriers will be as the
winter and spring proceed, but once in awhile shoppers may encounter an
activist seeking signatures for one of two petitions that now seek a vote to
recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.
That’s
far from how it was 16 years ago, when carriers flooded shopping malls with
petitions seeking the recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis, who eventually gave way
to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The
paucity of signable petitions is not the only difference between the two
current recall efforts and what befell Davis, reelected to a second term as
governor just months before the recall drive began in February 2003.
For one
thing, Davis was recalled in large part because of open corruption in his
administration, exemplified by the awarding of a large state contract to
software maker Oracle Corp. just after it made a large cash contribution to
Davis’s campaign fund. There were other egregious examples. But there’s been no
evidence of this kind of corruption under Newsom.
There’s
also the matter of money. Despite a smattering of national publicity, neither
current recall effort – both are sponsored by grass-roots Republicans – has
significant financial backing; hence the near absence of petition circulators.
By contrast, the Davis recall quickly drew $1.2 million from former Congressman
Darrell Issa, a San Diego County Republican and car alarm magnate who “retired”
two years ago only to announce last fall for the usually safe GOP House seat of
convicted campaign money cheat Duncan Hunter.
So the
Davis recall took off with both moral and financial impetus, both missing this
time.
These
are two reasons it appears Newsom has little to worry about on the recall
front, even though his job approval ratings in recent polls hover around a mere
50 percent, well below those of immediate predecessor Jerry Brown.
There’s
only one apparent parallel between Newsom and the recall-era Davis: energy
crises. Davis had his after California adopted electricity deregulation before
he became governor in 1999, with deregulation allowing Enron Corp. and other
later-convicted companies and executives to criminally manipulate California
power markets and prices.
Newsom’s
energy crisis came with the so-called “public service power shutdowns” (PSPS)
that blacked out millions of Californians while Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
did all it could to spare itself from financial consequences of its longtime
failure to maintain and update power lines.
Those
shutdowns were partially planned in a series of spring and summer meetings between
Newsom appointees and PG&E executives. But Newsom responded by (at least
verbally) turning on the company that has been a major benefactor for him and
his wife throughout his political career, using a series of negative epithets
to register his outrage, whether real or feigned.
So far,
it appears, Newsom will not suffer the same fate as Davis. One recall,
sponsored by GOP activist Erin Cruz of Palm Springs, had chalked up no valid
voter signatures as of mid-November, more than two months after it was approved
for circulation. The other, from San Diego County physician James Veltmeyer,
also was not listed by the Secretary of State among referenda with at least 25
percent of needed signatures as of early January, about two months before its
signature deadline.
One
reason may be that neither of these apparently floundering efforts targets
anything specific Newsom did or did not do. Rather, Cruz told a reporter, she
is acting against “over a decade of mismanagement of policies, public monies
and resources,” and “putting Californians and United States citizens, including
our veterans, last.”
Without
a complaint much more specific than that, no recall effort has ever gotten far.
Democratic
political consultant Garry South, who has worked for both Davis and Newsom,
once said “The stars have to align for a recall to succeed.” They did just that
against Davis, who might have fended off his recall had it not been joined by
the ultra-popular movie muscleman Schwarzenegger.
So
Newsom appears safe – for now. But some
Republicans are warning he’d better mind his p’s and q’s and moderate what they
call his “left-wing agenda” or they will be back over and over with new recall
drives, one of which might just succeed in America’s current ultra-unstable political
world.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias
at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most
Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,"
is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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