Based on the replacement candidate official statements from the voter guide, we also have these options (with their full statements):
Angelyne (No Party Preference): “Angelyne. Billboard Queen. Icon. Experienced Politician.”
Jeremiah “Jeremy” Marciniak (No Party Preference): “Search YouTube”
Dan Kapolovitz (Green): “Can you dig it?”
Chauncey “Slim” Killens (Republican): “Vote for Me The People’s Governor”
Adam Papagan (No Party Preference): “Love U”
John Cox, the guy with the bear, is not listed with an official statement. He is on the ballot, though.
For real tho: I just got my ballot. Obviously voting against the recall. Whom, if anyone, should I vote for in the event a recall is successful? I get the strategy of not endorsing a D candidate, but how does it help for none of us to cast a vote for a replacement?
Well, the prevailing consensus in this thread seems to be, vote NO on the recall (of course), and vote for Angelyne to replace him. The apparent strategy here being, if the recall is successful, then to have Angelyne become governor, thus making a total mockery of these incessant Republican recall efforts. (And perhaps prompting some changes to the stupid way recalls work here.)
Yeah, but that really isn’t going to happen. Trump fan Larry Elder seems to be leading the no-Newsom polls at the moment. A little weirdly to me, Democrat and seeming wanker Kevin Paffrath seems to have moved into second. CBS poll.
For those not reading the Dope in CA, that’s the same Larry Elder that is in pretty much every ad I see here, despite me actually clicking and telling Google I wasn’t interested.
No ballot yet. But I’m voting no just because it’s entirely a waste of time and money. Like him or hate him, We’ve got another election next friggin’ year.
But I’m writing in Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, because that’s how I believe succession after a successful recall should work in the first place.
Reading up on Paffrath, he seems to be a deeply conventional overambitious small business type. I can’t help thinking he would be GOP in other parts of the country, and that explains some of his wider appeal. So, he gets the “not Newsom, and egads! not Elder!” vote.
No, but (a) there is a 250-word limit, (b) you do have to pay to have it included, and (c) only candidates that agreed to the voluntary campaign spending limit of $9.728 million are even allowed the opportunity to buy space.
The list of “eligible” write-in candidates will be made available by the state on September 3.
In the event Newsom does get recalled and some boob like Cox or Elder gets in, is it possible for the California Legislature to impeach and remove whoever and then let Kounalakis take over? Or is she booted out as well in the event the recall succeeds? Surely the Ds have enough votes to meet the threshold of impeachment, right?
In California, the lieutenant governor becomes governor after the governor is impeached. While the Democrats hold a supermajority in both houses of the legislature, making an impeachment technically possible, it’s a highly unlikely scenario.
IF something happened to Feinstein and she had to replaced, then a hypothetical R Governor would probably be forced with the decision to appoint a placeholder D or face the wrath. Otherwise, they can let the Republican Governor be basically powerless until the next election.
In most states, a legislature with such impressive supermajorities could simply require a same-party appointment for a Senate vacancy, but I’m not sure how the legislation would be written given California’s janky top-two election system that doesn’t have party nominees.
When Kamala Harris resigned her seat, Newsom appointed Padilla. Of course, she wouldn’t have been picked as VP had California had a Republican Governor.
That was one of the arguments against Elizabeth Warren for VP. Massachusetts has a Republican as Governor. The state assembly has a Democratic supermajority, but didn’t want to change the law to require a same party appointment.