By now, you're surely aware of the recall effort of California Governor Gavin Newsom. His negligent mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic motivated Democrats, independents and the few remaining Republicans in the Golden State to acquire more than 2 million petition signatures.
What you might not know is the recall fever is spreading well beyond the governor's mansion in Sacramento.
An effort is on to recall the radical, Soros-funded District Attorney of Los Angeles County George Gascon, as well as the inept, socialist LA City Councilman Mike Bonin, whose social justice-driven policies have allowed criminal vagrants to take over world-famous Venice Beach with crime-ridden, arson-infested encampments.
The California State Constitution has the most liberal provisions for recalls of elected officials in the nation, and in recent years, activists have used the threat of recall to hold their permanent, one-party-dominated political class to some modicum of accountability.
The recall provisions require proponents to reach a threshold of petition signatures anywhere between 10% and 20% of the number of total votes in the last election, depending on the jurisdiction and the elected office.
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Once the signatures are approved, a special election is automatically triggered, and the people of the state, county or district will be faced with a simple, two-question ballot.
The first question pertains to whether the elected official should be recalled or not. The second question then asks who the replacement should be if the answer to the first question is "yes."
This presents a fascinating opportunity for any non-Democrat in the state. Democrats have won every statewide election in California for the past couple of decades, ditto in Los Angeles and San Francisco County. This doesn't mean there aren't Republicans in the state. In fact, there are quite a few. But, because of the huge population, they are vastly outnumbered.
However, because of the quirky nature of the recall provisions, one need not win a clear 50% plus one majority to win office. During a recall, the winner of the plurality of the vote in the second part of the ballot wins.
This is how Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's last Republican governor, attained office. He won in a recall effort against Gray Davis with 48% of the vote.
Over the years, the recall option has not been used in an arbitrary way. The aforementioned recall of Davis was the first and only successful effort against a governor since the provision was set in place back in 1913.
Democrats have recently raised alarms over the recall provisions saying that it is merely a trick that Republicans devised to find a backdoor into office, circumventing their party's dominance. However, history doesn't support that charge.
If Republicans were merely motivated by partisan or ideological differences, they would have gone full-speed ahead with an effort to recall the highly partisan and ideologically extreme Jerry Brown when he was governor for eight years preceding Newsom. But any discussion of a recall during Brown's tenure didn't really gain any traction.
So, what makes Newsom different? He's as partisan and ideologically extreme as Brown was. Why does his recall attract so many typically apathetic California voters?
One word: incompetence. As liberal and partisan as Brown was, at least he understood how government worked, and he was able to accomplish the basic, bare minimums a voter would expect. In short, he made the trains run on time.
Jerry Brown also didn't forbid people from going to the beach, amusement parks, or restaurants. He didn't shut down schools at the demand of the teachers' unions. He didn't let $30 billion in unemployment funds fraudulently end up in the hands of convicted felons through incompetence and corruption.
Gavin Newsom is no Jerry Brown. When even California Republicans are pining for the "good old days" of Governor Moonbeam, you know you have a problem.
So the recall goes forward, as does the effort for Gascon and Bonin. The big question is, will this now become more of the rule rather than the exception? And, will other states follow suit?
