They said it would never happen. Out on the dark corners of the internet, conspiracy theorists are probably still claiming this isn't real. But as of today, August 10th, 2021, it is real: The voters will have the opportunity to vote to Recall Governor Gavin Newsom on September 14th.
In general this is a story the media has ignored for nearly a year. Back in 2020 Gavin Newsom was sued. But you would be hard pressed to find more than a few inches in a serious newspaper in California that even mentions the case. The national media treated the Recall Movement like some quirky irrelevance. Definitely less important than the Governor of New York's Emmy. (In case you forgot, Governor Cuomo was awarded an Emmy back in 2020 for his, ahem, "performance.")
As Californians who CARE about California, and care enough to know that California has and CAN do better, we covered the story. If you are interested in "Gallagher & Kiley v. Newsom" we have the pdf of the judge's decision here. We published it last year, within hours of it being made public. In fact I was in the process of "publishing" it on our blog while I was being "interviewed" by a member of the "real press"... he was looking for a quote to patch into a four minute "long form" piece of journalism about national politics. He was remarkably uninterested in "Recall"... For me the moment was educational, here is a journalist patching together a story that is like every other patched together story, ignoring actual breaking news that no one else is covering.
Sometimes the "news" doesn't cover actual news. Sometimes you have to be down in the trenches yourself to figure out what is going on.
The reality is that California has been in trouble for years. Gavin Newsom has made our problems worse. A couple of weeks ago the MarinGOP was called "vacuous" for pointing out that it was an OUTRAGEOUS act on the part of Governor Newsom to dine out with healthcare lobbyists at the French Laundry even as his administration was accusing ordinary Californians who just wanted to get together with friends and family for Thanksgiving of being potential "superspreaders." The reality is... if you are defending the "rights" of the elite to live by different rules YOU are the vacuous one.
California deserves better than vacuous. But it isn't just the French Laundry incident that drove over a MILLION Californians to sign a petition to Recall the Gavin. At MarinGOP we like lists. So... back in January we made a list of the some of the Governor's most epic fails. You can read it here. A couple of weeks ago, we updated it. Why we updated our list is an interesting story... Our Chair, Jack Wilkinson, wrote an in depth letter to the editor of our local newspaper explaining WHY ordinary voters were so incensed about the Governor's performance that they were willing to stand in parking lots with clipboards gathering signatures. The editor wanted "proof" of our claims. Because doing his own research would apparently be too difficult. So we emailed him links... And then we posted them ourselves. Because at MarinGOP we believe the PEOPLE should have a chance to do their own research and make their own choices without the "assistance" of gatekeepers in the media. If you want the links for some more fails of Governor Gavin Newsom read this.
A couple of days ago I heard Gavin Newsom's first anti recall radio spot. Apparently the Governor is claiming that Recall is a plot of big money oil companies and "national Republicans." As local Republicans we can tell you RECALL IS NOT A NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PLOT.
We are in favor of the Recall. We helped gather signatures to Recall Gavin Newsom during the home stretch of the signature gathering process. We have a list -several lists- of Newsom’s failures as a Governor. Our Vice Chair, Thomas Montgomery, wrote an Op Ed about the recall for the Marin Independent Journal several weeks ago. You can read it here.
Governor Newsom is currently attempting to blame the recall on a “Republican Plot”… We feel that this is, as usual, a sign of his arrogance and lack of respect for the voters. Over 1.8 million California voters signed the recall petition. Thousands of grass roots volunteers gathered signatures. Many were not Republicans. We know this because registered Democrats marched into the Marin GOP offices asking to sign the recall petition in January.
A Recall election is inherently about the voters making a decision. This is one of the reasons we have chosen not to endorse a replacement candidate. We are on record as saying we think a stuffed deer head would make a better Governor than Gavin Newsom.
Any of the men or women who have tossed their hats into the ring would be an improvement.
We wish them all luck. May the best man or woman win.
This truly is a movement driven by the grassroots volunteers.
If you are interested in driving by and seeing some of those grassroots volunteers… Well the campaign to Recall Newsom over the next month will also be grassroots. On any given Saturday between 11am and Noon there will be a Recall Rally on the Rowland overpass over 101. And… if you want a Recall banner, button or one of our other exciting items please stop by the MarinGOP offices.