The California recall: A circus at best, a threat to democracy and public health at worst

CHANNING LEE: In November 2020, as COVID-19 cases spiked and the government enforced stricter lockdown measures, reporters caught California Governor Gavin Newsom mingling maskless at the French Laundry, a luxurious restaurant in Napa Valley where meals start at $350 per person. Though Newsom later acknowledged that attending his lobbyist-friend’s party was an error, Californians were furious at the hypocrisy. Critics of the governor, however, were thrilled.

Nine months later, I received by mail my ballot for the special election on recalling our governor. The first column explained the purpose of the election, indicating there were only two questions on the ballot. First, I was to answer, “Shall GAVIN NEWSOM be recalled [removed] from the office of Governor?” It was a simple “yes” or “no.” The second question, however, took up the rest of the page: “Candidate to replace GAVIN NEWSOM as Governor if he is recalled:” A list of 46 candidates— yes, forty-six— alongside their respective occupations followed.

Those familiar with the recall election know that this is not Newsom’s first recall challenge, though it is the only one— and the second ever in Californian history— to garner enough signatures for a special election. The first of five failed recall attempts was filed a mere three months after Newsom was sworn into office in 2019; the current attempt is the sixth.

What began as a measly campaign against Newsom’s progressive agenda gained steam just as the Democrat (and Democratic-led government of California) imposed tighter COVID restrictions to keep Californians safe during the pandemic. Some parents lamented Newsom’s initial closure of public schools, a policy that did not affect his kids in private school, while others complained about mask mandates by which the governor himself did not seem to abide. The French Laundry incident only served to confirm these grievances.

As a political moderate, I considered for a time voting “yes.” Why not give another governor the chance to deal with the pandemic? Considering our state’s exacerbating problems, issues like homelessness, immigration and the like could surely use a different angle of leadership.

Yet further research into what a “yes” vote would mean revealed a scarier reality that I simply could not stomach.

Firstly, there’s no denying that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s characterization of the recall as a “bold-faced Republican power grab” contains some truth to it. Lucky for supporters of the recall, the California recall system only requires a majority to pass. If more than 50% of voters vote “yes,” any of the 46 gubernatorial candidates can win with a simple majority--that is, more votes than any other candidate. This means that the current frontrunner, Larry Elder, a conservative talk show host, could become the next governor of California with only 24.2% of the vote. Given that only 22 million people were registered to vote in the 2020 General Election— already the highest in history— a meager 5.5 million Californians could potentially decide the future for the state’s 40 million people. Since this is a special election rather than a presidential election, however, experts have predicted a turnout as low as 30%; 24.2% of 30% would leave the election in the hands of 2.9 million people— 7.26%. I am proud of my state’s history of implementing direct democracy, but when the reality of an election such as this one threatens to undermine democracy rather than bolster it, we cannot allow the system to work against itself.

Secondly, ever since the pandemic began, critics of Newsom have targeted their disapproval on the restrictive COVID-19 policies meant to keep us safe. Contenders for governor have voiced strong opposition to California’s vaccine and mask mandates. Kevin Kiley is opposed to mask mandates of any kind and has vowed to rescind both California’s state of emergency as well as the statewide mask mandate for schools. Even as cases have spiked due to the Delta variant, Larry Elder maintains that he’s “not sure the science is settled” when it comes to requiring young people to wear masks in schools. John Cox, taking a more moderate stance, has labeled mandates a “last resort” and promised to keep businesses open while increasing vaccination rates, but still concedes that “individual freedom is the bedrock of our country.” While I, too, champion liberty and personal responsibility, the pandemic has proven that collective action is the only way to beat the virus. We’ve already endured more than 18 months of suffering; why not ride out the wave? As a vaccinated university student who is required to wear a mask whenever I am indoors, I can attest that it really isn’t all that bad. If anything, it’s a small price to pay for the safety of another. We cannot let our frustration with tight policies let us slip back into the red; electing a candidate who will rescind these mandates endangers the most vulnerable among us. The virus will pass with time and cooperation.

These two points aside, I would like to point out that the California Recall is expensive. It is costing taxpayers an astonishing $276 million, not to mention the political fundraising for both sides of the campaign. As of this writing, supporters of the recall have raised about $11.6 million while opponents have raised $68.9 million--a total of $80.6 million. These numbers do not include the millions of dollars individual candidates have raised (and poured) into the race: Elder sits on a warchest of $11.2 million, Cox of $8.4 million ($7.6 of which he contributed himself), Kevin Faulconer of $2.6 million...the list goes on. Adding up the figures mentioned in this paragraph alone amounts to a whopping $378.7 million— enough to cover the water conservation and water-use-efficiency programs portion of California’s share in the U.S. Senate’s pending Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. California faces too many problems to count, and spending this money on a recall election that would only remove Newsom for his last year in office is wasteful and irresponsible. I suppose, however, the train has already left the station for this line of reasoning.

Ultimately, I fear that California has become the canary in the coal mine for what entangling national and state politics can do. The political division among “red” and “blue”— more specifically pro-Trump and anti-Trump— has led us to a recall election that threatens both our democratic process and public health. When Jerry Brown was governor, a simple COVID restriction would not have been the hill on which to die, yet the rhetoric surrounding this recall election has left us Californians swimming in a sea of facts and “alternative facts” about the single issue that is COVID; what about the other struggles we’re facing?

We can vote Newsom out of office during the next gubernatorial election on November 8, 2022 if necessary; let’s not feed into the circus that is the California Recall Election.

Channing Lee is a junior in the School of Foreign Service studying International Politics with a minor in Religion, Ethics, & World Affairs. She hails from Orange County, California and is the author of Stronger Than Trust: Igniting the Faith Within Us.