Newsom urges Democrats to ignore candidate recall issue

BERKELEY – California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday that Democrats are not expected to vote for any of the 46 candidates vying to replace him in the upcoming recall election.

The recall ballots contain two parts: an ascending or descending vote on whether to keep Newsom and an open question on who should replace him. Newsom said he was focused on winning the first game and discouraged his base from taking sides in the second.

“We’re just focusing on ‘no’ on the recall, leaving the rest blank,” Newsom said.

Newsom’s warning highlights the strategic gamble his campaign has taken to dissuade other prominent Democrats from running. Some Democratic officials and campaign agents believed it was in Newsom’s best interests to have a fallback Democrat on the ballot in case Newsom was ousted. But Newsom’s team emphasized party unity and warned that another Democratic candidate could help the recall succeed by fracturing the Liberal electorate.

As a result, the recall ballots will list several prominent Republican candidates, but no Democrats with political experience. If Democratic voters leave this second question blank, they could effectively cede the issue of Newsom’s successor to Republican voters and other supporters of the recall.

This creates the possibility of a Republican becoming governor with a small plurality of votes. Conservative talk show host Larry Elder took the lead in the Republicans, but topped around 20%.

Newsom spoke on Monday outside a homeless encampment tucked under a highway, with trash like needles and torched portable toilets strewn about. The governor has made regular appearances at homeless camps this summer to help clean up trash and sell state housing money, an attempt to respond to California voters concerned about the growth of homeless people. in the state.

While registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by far, polls show Conservatives are much more motivated to vote on recall. Newsom’s fate will depend on the participation of a sufficient number of voters to counter the rise in Republican enthusiasm. The governor on Monday called his team’s efforts to exit the vote “unprecedented”, saying the campaign had sent more than 15 million text messages while spending millions to increase turnout.

Former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed the governorship in 2003 without an absolute majority, securing 48.6 percent of the vote after voters chose to remove the then governor. Gray Davis. Then-Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante decided to run as a replacement Democrat in this election and only obtained a third of the votes, a result that informed the thinking of some Democrats this time around.