Did you know that there have been over a hundred attempted recalls of California's sitting governor since the 1980s? Most don't, especially if they don't come from California. Interestingly enough, however, only one of those has actually been successful. That would be the recall of Governor Gray Davis and his subsequent replacement by the "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yep, a cool bit of trivia for you this morning, maybe you can use it to win a bet with your politically minded friends. Yet now, thanks to COVID-19, or more specifically the heavy handed practices/edicts of the California government, we might be in for another bit of future trivia making as it appears that even the Democrats are tired of Governor Gavin Newsom's COVID response, and specifically his hypocrisy regarding following his own directives.
Coming from California originally, I can tell you that it takes A LOT to get Democrats on board with recalling a Democrat governor (the biggest reason why these recalls rarely go anywhere), but as with last time, if they're willing to get on board the recall train, Gavin Newsom may become the 21st century version of Gray Davis. By the way, that takes some doing, as Davis was terrible on almost every level.
But why should someone in Texas, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, or some other state care about what happens to the California governor? Well, to use a VERY popular California saying, as goes California, so the nation will follow.
There are likely a LOT of governors who are quietly watching this. You'd never get even one of them to admit it, but I can name a few right off the top of my head (i.e. Andrew Cuomo and Gretchen Whitmer) who have already heard such rumblings in their state and would be very unhappy to see something like this go through and embolden their detractors.
Now not every state has a recall provision. In fact only 39 do. So Governor Cuomo is immune from a recall, but not from having it used against him in a political ad by a primary opponent. Michigan and Minnesota, however, do have recall provisions, and as we've seen from their populaces, the heavy handed tactics are as welcome there as they are in California. Yet there is one thing that could end up tipping things for these Governors, and they may not even have anything to do with it.
Joe Biden's transition team, specifically his COVID response team headed by Dr. Fauci, are pushing for both continued and expanded COVID restrictions, and this includes a national mask mandate as well as occupancy and distance restrictions. If those go into effect, the COVID fatigue is only going to heighten, and that will strain this gubernatorial relationship in a number of states even farther than it has been. So it's not as if there's nothing to see here, it bears watching.
The national COVID fatigue is growing, patience is shrinking, and there is simply less tolerance for, "Do as I say and not as I do" anymore. Government officials of ALL parties would be well advised to remember that right now as all politics appears to be tightrope walking at this time.
In the end, it would be a very good thing if Gavin Newsom got recalled, and with the fleeing hordes of middle class liberals abandoning the state's mega population centers for more conservative states that have intact economies and low taxes, there's a chance a Republican Governor could be elected just like Arnold, yet it's still California, so that's never a sure thing.
In the end, such a move would only add fuel to a number of fires, it might also cause the national Democratic Party some consternation as they're likely already worried about the 2022 election based upon what seats are coming up for vote. Perhaps that will mitigate what Joe Biden does, who knows, but one thing is for sure, if the recall were to happen, it would rattle the cages of government officials from City Halls to the Congress itself.
Come on California, we're rooting for you.
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