California Democrats have decided the best way to stave off future recall efforts is to make it easier to intimidate voters by making their names available to the candidates being recalled.
The bill in question has been authored by Democratic State Sen. Josh Newman, who himself was recalled and replaced in 2018 before winning his seat back last November. Although it wouldn’t apply to the recall of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, it would apply to recalls going forward. The bill would allow the target of a recall effort to contact petition signers to determine if they “understood” the petition and if they want to remove their signatures.
Newman’s bill is clearly designed to intimidate prospective recall supporters in the future. Newman himself made that clear, saying, “The ballot in America is secret, and that is kind of a hallowed, sacred tradition. But participation in politics is not intended to be secret or anonymous.”
Newman’s later reply to critics of the #SB663 effort to allow disclosure of recall signatories’ info: “The ballot in America is secret and that is kind of a hallowed sacred tradition. But participation in politics is not intended to be secret or anonymous.”
— John Myers (@johnmyers) April 12, 2021
The proposal is nothing more than a despicable intimidation tactic being pursued to try and prevent future Democrats from being embarrassed by recall efforts as Newsom and Newman have been. While it forces politicians to sign under penalty of perjury that they won’t share the names publicly, the chilling effect will remain.
This would be par for the course for a Democratic Party that is increasingly hostile to those who don’t hold its politics in the public square. Former staffers Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg created a “Trump Accountability Project” blacklist, which targets anyone associated with the Trump administration, including federal judges.
More glaring was Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro naming and shaming voters in his district who voted for Trump, including retirees and small-business owners, encouraging an online mob to direct harassment their way. Castro asserted that those voters, many of whom also donated to Trump, were supporting white supremacy.
Democratic declarations that “participation in politics is not intended to be secret or anonymous” is the idea behind the push by Democrats like Castro to shame anyone who donates to Republicans, and now California Democrats want to apply it to voters participating in the recall process as it is outlined in California law.
Voter suppression is only an issue for Democrats when Republicans want to require voters to show some form of identification. When Democrats want to intimidate donors or recall supporters, opening them up to personal or even physical reprisals, then it becomes a matter of “transparency” and “accountability.”
If California Democrats move forward with Newman’s bill, it will show that, even in what is effectively a one-party state, Democrats feel insecure enough that they need to intimidate their opponents and keep them out of the democratic process.
