Well, Republican voters have been known to reward massive ignorance, so this might not hurt Jenner at all.
California needs to change its constitution to stop popular democracy. I am for liberal representative democracy, but pure democracy can be just as ineffectual and counter-productive as illiberal democracy.
I don’t think I have a problem with a recall vote for Newsom; I assume he’ll win the vote. He did a few stupid things and going through the stress of a recall seems like a reasonable punishment.
I do agree that some of California’s political apparatus causes problems, though. The laws and taxes around property have really caused problems.
A reasonable punishment? The most over-optimistic cost to the California taxpayers is $81 million - that’s from the recall advocates. Election officials is CA are guessing it will actually run closer to $400 million. Why am I being punished for Newsom being a hypocrite and eating at the French Laundry?
This is petty grandstanding and opportunism, nothing more. It should and probably will fail, which just makes the cost all the more egregious. Might as well light a bonfire with a couple hundred million in cash instead.
Totally true. And he is up for re-election in 2022 in a normal election anyway, so this is even more wasteful if you consider it will be mere months between the recall and a real, scheduled election. This whole thing is designed only to damage Newsom - the GOP must really be scared of him emerging on a national scale in a few years.
This whole damn thing is the feeble California Republican party beating its little fists against the chest of the gargantuan Democratic majority. It’s just a way to stay in the news and assure its voters that they are not circling the drain, the way it looks (and is).
Unless you live in California you can’t imagine how stupid and broken the proposition/petition system is, the wasted expense, the damage.
Thank you for this. I just have to say, I love the mental image.
Like this?
I am sorry but I disagree.
Unless you are talking about the recall system, which is really poorly set up and too easy.
And the GOP ran such a total carpetbagger loser against Newsom, that of course Newsom won.
On November 6, 2018, he lost to Democrat Gavin Newsom in the state’s biggest gubernatorial landslide since 1950.[4][5]
The only GOP candidate that may get a sniff from center-rightward voters in this state is Faulconer. But if I were him, I would keep my powder dry for the real election in 2022 rather than shoot my wad in this sham recall, where he will have to share the stage with the clown car and other losers. I dunno, maybe he thinks he can win in one of these contests, but ISTM he’d have a better chance next year with less distractive competition.
Yeah, he aint so bad. Kinda a Arnie republican.
But I can’t forgive him for being a trumpist:
That’s the price to pay (heh) for democracy. If a republican wins, does some stupid things, and democrats have a chance to recall him I’m guessing people won’t have a problem with the cost. From a long distance (I’m on the east coast) a recall seems like a reasonable check on the government. If only we had a recall vote for the previous president…
If it were something this petty I’d hope they would, but it’s true partisan politics often trumps good sense. But we’re not talking about some speculative “what if?”, we’re talking about the reality of this recall. And this recall is just plain silly and probably doomed to failure for all the reasons already listed in this thread.
If folks are dissatisfied, they should vote him out next year - not hold one unnecessary election a year before a constitutionally mandated one. As noted one of the reasons this is going forward now is partially due to it being a lower bar for success than a normal election, even if it is still a long shot. You just have to be the top vote getter in a greater than 50% pool of anti-incumbent votes. If a combined ten candidates (there are currently ten, the number could still rise) get 50.1% of the vote, Joe Blow could become governor-for-a-year with the backing of 8% (or whatever) of the electorate. It’s dumb.
46% of registered voters is hardly a “garguntuan majority”.
from wikipedia:
:* 46.1% were Democrats
- 24.2% were Republicans
- 5.7% were affiliated with other political parties
- 24.0% were unaffiliated (“Decline to State” or “No Party Preference”) voters
I’m standing by my statement. Except I spelled gargantuan wrong.
In addition: the Democrats have supermajorities in both state houses, hold all eight statewide elected executive offices, both Senate seats and 42 of 53 House seats.
You could make the argument that’s not a “gargantuan” majority, but I’d argue it is at least a pretty fucking big one 
. However that doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of Republicans in CA - there absolutely are. Trump won in many counties. It’s just that they are swamped out politically in all the urban corners of the state.
46% is not a majority, at all.
The stupid things were all pretty minor. A recall should be for serious violations.