Liberals suffering from sore winner syndrome are not content with breathing a sigh of relief that California Gov. Gavin Newsom kept his job. Now, they’re mad that the election was a “waste” of taxpayer money, which would be silly anywhere, much less in California.
If I were a voter in California, I wouldn’t be celebrating. I’d be angry over tonight. I’d be asking @CAGOP what the taxpayers got in return for the $276 million wasted on this ridiculous recall campaign. Utterly embarrassing.
— Charlotte Clymer ?️? (@cmclymer) September 15, 2021
Ignoring the fact that the recall was a real threat to Newsom as recently as last month, when polls showed the race in a statistical tie, this criticism could be described as “anti-democracy.” After all, the recall process is part of the California Constitution. Is it all of a sudden a problem that California voters can initiate recall elections to hold their elected officials accountable for malfeasance?
But it’s the complaint about the cost that is weirdest. All elections cost money for the state to run. Is the $276 million price tag really that objectionable for an election that, again, was launched to hold Newsom accountable and, had it been held one month earlier, may have actually succeeded?
If it is, perhaps the state of California can identify other areas to cut costs. How about the California bullet train to nowhere, a money pit since the project was launched? The magic train had an original estimated price tag of $33 billion. That number is now $100 billion with no clear timeline, and the project has been temporarily shortened to focus on the San Joaquin Valley. That small portion of the track has already seen more than $800 million in cost overruns. That’s three elections’ worth!
California approved a $262 billion budget this year. The state has spent $13 billion over the past three years to tackle homelessness only to have the problem get much worse. This is only the second-ever statewide recall election in California history. Instead of advocating that only the extraordinarily wealthy be able to start recall petitions, as former Lincoln Project adviser Kurt Bardella did, maybe liberals should reevaluate how California spends the rest of its budget.
New Rule: if you force a recall and lose, you should have to reimburse the taxpayers for the cost.
— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) September 15, 2021
The truth is that liberals, whether in California or on Twitter, are upset that recall elections are being used against them. They don’t actually care about the $276 million, as the state’s embarrassing spending priorities demonstrate. It’s just a useful talking point.
California Democrats will certainly try to make recalls more difficult moving forward, likely by raising the number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. But it isn’t going to be because they are concerned about costs. It’s going to be to avoid future humiliations like your state party’s leader getting dragged to the brink of losing his job.
