SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KRON) – Days ahead of their deadline, organizers of the effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom say they have 2,060,000 signatures, enough to bring the issue to voters later this year.
“What we’re seeing right now is Democracy in action at full throttle,” Randy Economy, the senior advisor of Recall Gavin Newsom, said.
The group needs 1.5 million signatures validated by state elections officials, they say the amount they have now could offset a potential rejection rate of 25% of the signatures collected so far they say their verification rate is at 82%.
The update comes after several state and national Democratic leaders have publicly rebuked the recall, claiming it’s a partisan power grab by Republicans but supporters say the signatures tell a different story.
“They’re pawns in Gavin Newsom’s chess game. They’re in denial, 38% of the people who have signed our petition are democrats and decline to state [no party preference] so they’re out of touch with their own base,” Economy said.
“It’s coming from some major Democrats, and some people who have never been involved in the political process before,” Anne Dunsmore, campaign manager of Rescue California, said.
Newsom’s campaign manager Dan Newman said Thursday the Republican recall is a partisan attempt to install a Trump supporter as governor.
The governor has yet to publicly utter the word “recall” but directed part of his state of the state speech this week to the effort.
“We’re not going to change course because of a few naysayers and Doomsdayers.”
But recall organizers say the governor’s vaccine tour, state of the state address, and recent policy changes have not slowed down the signature-gathering effort.
“Sometimes I think, Gosh we need to stand back and let this guy keep doing our work for us,” Dunsmore said.
Once the signatures are in next week, election officials have until around April 19th to finish verifying all of them.
