California voters’ recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is rapidly taking shape. The recall petition reached the required threshold of 1.5 million signatures on Wednesday (Feb. 10), with a number of Chinese participants, who take the right they hold to elect and recall officials extremely seriously.
Newsom, who was elected governor in November 2018 after just two years in office, has already faced five unsuccessful attempts to seek his removal from office. The sixth recall petition is now underway. Why is Newsom so unpopular with Californians? Why has the recall failed so many times?
California Chinese voters’ divergent views on Newsom may explain one or two things.
California Governor Newsom (file photo)
Chinese voters’ views are divided
Chinese voters who support the Republican Party are dissatisfied with the liberal-leaning policies that Newsom has enacted since he took office.
Ms. Chen, who lives in San Diego, signed the recall petition. She told Voice of America, “Newsom has introduced so many very radical policies in 2019, and then increased taxes on us working families. And then there’s that ridiculous bill that he signed, which is that your name can’t be on the ballot unless you disclose your tax information.”
But some voters who support the Democrats argue that California, which has the highest taxes in the nation and the highest homelessness rate, as mentioned in the recall proposal, is not the result of the current governor alone, but of a long-standing system of government.
Jeffrey Kwong, Chinese-American director of the California Democratic Club of Milk, said, “He’s done a really good job improving our water, health care, promoting Obama’s affordable care (Affordable Care), public health and insurance programs.”
Yet what has drawn Newsom the most criticism may be his repeated and inconsistent control measures during the Communist virus outbreak.
Ms. Xu, who lives in Los Angeles, said, “People felt there was some inconsistency in his Home order policy …… before a lot of people didn’t understand why we couldn’t outdoor dining (outdoor dining) in restaurants, but why churches could be partially open. But after many of us reflected on the issue, and after the numbers went down, outdoor dining opened up again.”
Kylie Wu, also in Los Angeles, told Voice of America, “He recently lifted the ban again. But the Los Angeles Epidemic is being hit the hardest. I think he’s implementing and lifting the ban like playing the stock market, he’s predicting, not backing up his decision with some really good statistics.”
Newsom’s decision to selectively shut down businesses has led some to believe that he represents the wealthy establishment (the establishment) rather than the ordinary people who are actually affected by the epidemic.
Last November, Newsom was revealed by the media to have attended a lobbying group’s dinner without a mask. Vu Kaili, who supports the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, told the Voice of America, “As the saying goes, the upper beam is not the lower beam. Leaders have a lot of influence on the public. I think (Newsom’s approach) has given many Californians an unreal sense of security.”
According to the California Department of Public Health, as of Feb. 10, more than 3 million people were infected and more than 45,000 had died in California, making it one of the worst-hit areas in the United States.
But Dayna Poon, who also supports the Democrats, argued that the severity of the epidemic is not Newsom’s fault alone. “If everyone had worked together and worked together, California would not be in this situation. I don’t think it’s his problem.”
Ms. Xu said, “I think Newsom handled it better at the beginning because he made everyone homebound in Time and still limited some of the spread after all. But I understand that people are now homebound orders basically a year before and after, so there is this frustration (沮丧感).”
Chinese cherish the right to recall
Whether they support or oppose a recall, Chinese-American voters value their right to recall the governor.
Ms. Chen, who is in San Diego, said, “Chinese just have to be vocal. In the past, people had the impression that Chinese people were not very involved in politics and only cared about their own area. But now there is still a lot of participation. You can think of 1.5 million signatures this time, the Chinese have contributed a lot.”
This definitely makes me feel a sense of ownership,” said Kaili Wu. The fact that I have a voice in the community makes me want to take the initiative to make the community better. Why should I care about the community if that’s not the case? I enjoy that right very much.”
Kwong En-Lung said, “It’s good to have this recall system. It enables the government to be more representative of public opinion.”
Removing the governor is not an easy task
But removing a governor from office is no easy task, and there are many hurdles to overcome.
David Lublin, a professor in the Department of Government at American University, told Voice of America, “Starting a recall election requires a certain number of voter signatures over a certain period of time, and the number of signatures varies from state to state.”
In California, for example, the number of petitions needs to reach 12 percent of the voters in the last election.
Lublin: “That’s a really high number considering California is such a large state, and it also has to be collected in a relatively short period of time rather than through years, so it makes it more difficult.”
If this petition can collect 1,495,709 valid signatures by March 17, the recall election process will officially begin. Because a number of co-signatures may be invalidated during the official verification process, the organizations launching the recall action said they will continue to seek co-signatures until they reach 1.9 million to 2 million signatures.
After reaching the number of petitioners, California will place the ballot. Two questions will be on the ballot: one is whether to agree to recall the governor; the other is who to elect as the new governor. If a majority of voters choose to agree to recall the governor in the first question, then the person who receives the most votes in the second question will become California’s new governor.
Lublin emphasized that the winner does not have to receive more than 50 percent of the vote, as long as it is the person who receives the most votes of all the contenders. He also said that the entire recall election could be months long.
If this recall process starts, it will be the fifth recall election to enter the process in U.S. history. The four previous ones were in North Dakota in 1921, Arizona in 1988 (that recall election was canceled after the governor was impeached), California in 2003 and Wisconsin in 2012.
Currently, only two governors have been removed from office in U.S. history. California removed Democratic Governor Gray Davis and elected Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in a recall election in 2003, and North Dakota removed Governor Lynn Frazier in a recall election in 1921.
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