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SACRAMENTO, Calif .– California Governor Gavin Newsom easily foiled a recall election it could have removed him from office, but his Democratic allies in the legislature are already seeking changes that could make it harder to mount such a challenge in the future.
These changes could include increasing the standard for requiring office holder wrongdoing, increasing the number of signatures required to force a recall election, and changing the process that could allow someone with a small percentage of votes to replace the state’s top elected official. .
“I think the recall process has been militarized,” Newsom said on Wednesday, a day after his decisive victory.
He added that the recall rules also affect school boards, city councils, county supervisors and district attorneys, especially in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where progressive prosecutors with reform agendas face challenges. recall efforts.
The governor noted that California has one of the lowest thresholds in the country for the number of signatures needed to trigger a recall election. In Newsom’s case, supporters of the recall had to collect nearly 1.5 million signatures from 22 million registered voters in an attempt to oust him, or 12% of the electorate who elected him in 2018. Kansas, on the other hand, requires 40%.
But the efforts were rebuffed by those who organized the recall election against Newsom and the expert questions, who said California law is better than many at limiting requirements that make it harder to recall people. politicians.
“They are acting against the will of the people when they take measures like this to limit our capacity for self-reliance,” said Orrin Heatlie, the main promoter of the recall effort.
There is little benefit for Democrats to push for changes that might irritate voters, said Joshua Spivak, recall expert and senior researcher at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform in New York City.
“From a political point of view, it’s a little crazy, and I can’t imagine why they would spend political capital on it,” Spivak said. “Are you going to go to the voters and say, ‘Well, we haven’t dealt with the homelessness issue but yeah, we’ve fixed the recall?’ It just doesn’t seem like a smart move.
State Senator Josh Newman, who was recalled in 2018 before returning to his seat two years later, said he will propose two constitutional amendments: one to increase the number of signatures required and another to have the lieutenant -governor ends the governor’s term if a recall is successful. .
“We need to create a system where a small, small, tiny minority of Californians cannot create, cannot initiate a recall that California taxpayers have spent close to $ 300 million on and that frankly distracts and really does impact. our ability to govern for nine months, ”said Democrat MP Marc Berman.
Newsom on Tuesday became only the second governor in US history to defeat a recall; the other was Wisconsin Republican Scott walker in 2012. The victory cements him as a leading figure in national democratic politics and ensures that the country’s most populous state remains a laboratory for progressive policies.
With around 74% of ballots counted, the “no” answer to the question of whether to recall Newsom was 28 points ahead.
On Capitol Hill, Berman and Senator Steven Glazer, who head the Legislative Assembly election commissions, have promised bipartisan hearings in the coming months, with the goal of proposing constitutional changes sometime after lawmakers meet in January. Changes to the revocation law must be approved by the voters.
GOP MP Kelly Seyarto, vice chairman of the Elections Committee, said Republicans would seek to ensure the proposals protect voters’ ability to hold politicians to account.
Both election committees will review recall laws in other states and hear from experts on the California process.
Nineteen states have some sort of recall process, Glazer said, but only Colorado has a similar two-step process. The California system first asks voters if they want to revoke the incumbent. Then, if a majority is in favor of the impeachment, the candidate who obtains the most votes on the second question becomes governor. In this week’s race, 46 candidates were on the ballot.
In the majority of other recall states, he said, the only question on the ballot is whether the official should be recalled. If a majority of voters say yes, then the position is declared vacant and filled by nomination or by a separate special election.
The changes have the support of the two leaders of the California legislature, both Democrats, and their party holds a two-thirds majority in both houses. But the final decision will rest with the voters as the removal process was enshrined in the state’s constitution in 1911.
“This is a system that was put in place about a century ago and as long as it is still valid in its present form, it needs to be looked at with certainty,” said the president of the Assembly, Anthony Rendon.
A survey by the Public Policy Institute of California in July found that 86% of likely California voters approve of having a way to recall elected officials, a sentiment that transcends political parties, regions and demographic groups. But two-thirds of likely voters also supported major or minor changes, although Republicans and Democrats were divided over the extent of the changes.
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See AP Recall Coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/california-recall
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