Schwarzenegger weighs in on the right wing attempt to recall Gavin Newsom because, of course, he’s an expert on recalls because he won one and he was in a movie called …”Total Recall.” He says it’s good that Newsom is getting around the state being see and is handling the crisis well. But then he adds this:
Schwarzenegger says the current governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, is doing something “very smart” in that he has responded to the recall by getting out of Sacramento.
He sees both the 2003 recall and the current one in terms of “dissatisfaction” rather than political parties. Indeed, one of Newsom’s greatest advantages is that there is no challenger with name recognition, so inertia is on his side. A Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday supports that idea.
And party affiliation won’t help much, Schwarzenegger says.
“The Republican party is, like I have said, dying at the box office. This is the crazy thing here, when they say it’s a ‘power grab’ of the Republicans. Let me tell you, the [California] Republicans couldn’t even get anyone elected. It’s ludicrous — the Republican Party doesn’t exist. These are the signatures of the ordinary folks that have signed on.”
So then, as Arnold notes, the lack of contenders, political party influence and the short runway to the likely November vote clears the path for an outsider, like Schwarzenegger himself, to enter the fray. And he has some suggestions.
“What would happen if George Clooney would run for the governorship? What if Brad Pitt would run? If Oprah Winfrey would run?” said the former governor. “We don’t know, so there will be an interesting answer to do a poll like that.”
Maybe we could recruit Meghan Markle to do it! Or, I know, how about Kanye West, he’s totally into running for something, although Governor of California may not be good enough for him.
This is stupid. California has a petition process in which rich people pay to get something on the ballot by employing petition gatherers to stand outside grocery stores and misrepresent the purpose of the petition because they get paid by the signature. It causes a lot of stupid stuff to get on the ballot, including this ridiculous thing. He’s right that “ordinary people” signed on. But there are plenty of Republicans in this state. It’s a big state. And I’m sure a few Democrats were waiting in line outside Ralphs because of the COVD restrictions and were annoyed enough to sign it. It means nothing.
Anyway, according to the LA Times today:
A majority of likely California voters would keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office if a recall election were held today, according to a new poll conducted as vaccinations in the state increase and the Democratic governor ramps up his campaign to fight the effort to remove him.
Among the 1,174 likely voters surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California, 56% said they oppose the recall and 40% support it, with the remaining undecided. More than three-quarters of likely voters said the worst of the pandemic is over.
The results of the poll, conducted March 14-23, are a reflection of more Californians beginning to see “the light at the end of the tunnel” in the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mark Baldassare, president of the institute.
“The support for keeping Gov. Newsom has become much more optimistic about where things are headed with COVID than they were in January,” Baldassare said. “All of these things work to the benefit of keeping the status quo.”