A campaign to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom officially reached its 1.5 million signature requirement. The deadline for signature collection is March 17.
Organizers for “Recall Gavin 2020” said Friday they have surpassed the 1.5 million signatures required to place the proposal on this year’s ballot. The signatures still need to be verified. Once verified and approved, the recall election would happen sometime over the summer according to the local San Diego station ABC News 10.
California’s GOP representative Kevin Kiley tweeted late last night that everything is official:
It’s official. 1.5 million signatures.
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) February 13, 2021
Although Gov. Newsom’s performance with respect to the pandemic has been the primary push for his recall, Orrin Heatlie, who’s leading the campaign told CBS13 in Sacramento: “There are a lot of things that have driven the recall forward.”
Heatlie added that business owners and senior citizens are two of the biggest groups supporting the campaign.
A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey found that Gov. Newsom slumped to just 46 percent of voter approval.
That compares with 60 percent backing just four months ago.
“Thirty-six percent of voters say they would vote ‘yes’ to recall the governor and 45 percent would vote ‘no’ to keep him in office,” poll director Mark DiCamillo told KNX 1070 News. “But a very large 19 percent said they were not sure and that includes 20 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of no party preference voters, so I think a number of voters are just waiting to see how things play out.”
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden said he opposes the effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. In a tweet, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that Biden and Newsom share interests in addressing the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.
Recall adviser Randy Economy says interest is higher since it was revealed Newsom dined with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling state residents to stay home and not socialize.
With the elections closing in no one has talked about who will replace him.
