A recall effort aimed at removing California Gov. Gavin Newsom from office has been backed by more than a million signatures.
Organizers of the recall effort, based in Newport Beach, California, need to raise 1.8 million signatures by mid-March in order to be put on the ballot, and they believe they are on track to do so after hitting the million-signature mark this week, 70% of the total needed, according to ABC 7 Los Angeles.
“Governor Gavin Newsom continues to destroy the lives and businesses of hard working Californians,” the recall effort’s homepage reads. “Help stop this tyrant before it’s too late.”
The website lists unaffordable housing, record homelessness, rising crime, failing schools, exploding pension debt, and a locked-down population while the prisons are emptied as reasons why Newsom “must go.”
“One million frustrated Californians have signed the official recall petition,” Tom Del Beccaro, the chairman of the recall campaign and a former Republican U.S. Senate candidate in California, said about the milestone. “We are two-thirds of the way to giving voters the opportunity to choose a new governor and a new direction for the state.”
It was reported last month that Newsom’s team is growing “increasingly concerned” about the recall effort that has gained steam as more and more Californians have grown frustrated with the strict coronavirus restrictions he has imposed in the state.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets over the past several months to oppose the lockdown, businesses have ignored closure orders, and law enforcement officials across the state have publicly refused to enforce the restrictions.
Newsom, a Democrat, was also criticized after he was spotted eating at a restaurant with a large group of people in violation of his own coronavirus guidelines.
The governor later apologized for the incident, calling it a “bad mistake.”
