The effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has garnered more than half the needed signatures to get on the ballot following the Democratic governor’s controversial dinner at a swanky French restaurant.
“820,000 people have weighed in on this already,” Orrin Heatlie, who introduced the effort, said. “There’s going to be another 820,000 people plus in the next couple of months.”
Though recall efforts often fizzle, recall organizers have until mid-March to reach the 1.5 million signature threshold needed to get on the ballot. California has had only one successful gubernatorial recall effort in its history, when voters replaced Democratic Gov. Gray Davis with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 over mismanagement of California finances.
Californians and people across the country voiced their outrage with Newsom last month after photos of him in the French Laundry restaurant, where meals cost $350 a person (according to a menu from 2018), circulated showing him socializing with a large group while not wearing a mask. He was characterized as a hypocrite for the move, which organizers of the recall says has propelled their effort.
EXCLUSIVE: We’ve obtained photos of Governor Gavin Newsom at the Napa dinner party he’s in hot water over. The photos call into question just how outdoors the dinner was. A witness who took photos tells us his group was so loud, the sliding doors had to be closed. 10pm on @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/gtOVEwa864
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 18, 2020
“It has resonated. It’s about the arrogance of power,” Randy Economy, a senior adviser to the recall effort, said of Newsom’s controversial dinner last month.
Newsom apologized for the dinner, but he has been hit with additional criticisms since.
Last month, for example, he faced outrage over a massive scam where death row inmates, and others received state unemployment benefits to the tune of up to $2 billion, which hearkens back to Gray’s 2003 finance mismanagement. The scam even prompted Newsom’s 2018 Republican gubernatorial opponent to call on him to resign.
“Too many California families still wait. But prisoners got $140M in unemployment checks. Newsom issues statement listing failed steps. But any real action is absent. After French Laundry fiasco, THIS? We’re through and he’s done #TimeToResign” John H. Cox said after the scam was revealed.
Newsom has also been slammed by Hollywood stars, and Republican leaders have criticized him for the strict lockdowns that have shut down schools, businesses, and churches.
Support for the recall extends beyond Californians, with notable conservatives such as Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee throwing their endorsements behind the effort.
“The ‘blue wave’ that the left-wing media spent months talking about disappeared in California,” Gingrich told Politico in a statement Friday. “This is a direct result of Gavin Newsom’s destructive leadership that has crippled small businesses and sent billions of dollars of California COVID-19 jobless benefits to criminals across the nation.”
Newsom’s office did not immediately return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
