CNN is telling me right now that the people of California are really “pissed off” (Dana Bash) and the same dynamics are in place that were there when Arnold Schwarzenegger ran in 2003.
I’m sorry, but no. Most Californians may be pissed off but they don’t blame the governor and sure as hell aren’t going to replace him with an obnoxious, phony like Larry Elder:
Momentum has turned strongly against the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom with just days to go before voting ends, a change that comes after a deluge of political ads and support from leading Democrats who have slammed the effort as a Republican power grab.
According to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll cosponsored by the Los Angeles Times released Friday, 60.1% of likely voters surveyed oppose recalling Newsom compared with 38.5% in favor of ousting the governor. Fewer than 2% of likely voters remained undecided or declined to answer, suggesting the issue is largely settled in the minds of California voters.
The findings, which were gathered by pollsters between Aug. 30 and Sept. 6, align with results from a batch of recent independent polls, all of which showed a decisive advantage for Newsom as the Sept. 14 recall election approaches.ADVERTISING
A poll by the Berkeley institute just six weeks ago found that likely voters’ opinions were almost evenly split, a vulnerability for Newsom that at the time appeared to be driven mostly by the indifference many Democrats expressed about the recall.
Since then, Newsom’s campaign worked feverishly to redefine the recall campaign as a referendum on “Trumpism,” an effort aided greatly by the emergence of conservative talk show host Larry Elder, a loyalist to President Trump, as the clear favorite to become California’s next governor if the recall is successful.
“In the early going it was probably more about whether they liked Newsom or not. It was personalized,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. “By attacking his challenger, which is Elder, and framing it as ‘Look at what you’ll get if you vote for this guy’ … I think that really won the day.”
The poll found that 65% of likely voters — and 89% of likely Democratic voters and 64% of independent voters — thought electing a conservative Republican governor would threaten the state’s well-established progressive policies on climate change, immigration, healthcare and abortion.
“It’s changed the whole dynamic of the vote,” DiCamillo said. “It’s raised fear among voters and I think that fear has increased the engagement of Democrats.”
Juan Rodriguez, manager for Newsom’s anti-recall campaign, said he was not surprised by the increasing opposition to the recall. Along with a massive get-out-the-vote effort, the campaign enlisted help from Democratic Party heavyweights to urge Californians to scuttle the recall, including former President Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris and Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota along with independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The anti-recall campaign also spent tens of millions of dollars on television and social media ads blasting the recall as an underhanded attempt by Republicans to nullify Newsom’s election in 2018, a strategy backed by the national Republican Party, former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich and conservative media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax, Rodriguez said.
“I think you’re now seeing Democrats so fired up because they know what this recall really is about,” he said.
Yes, Californians are still dealing with the pandemic, housing prices are insane, the yearly fires are terrifying and the homeless crisis is acute. These are big problems. But because the Republicans have shown themselves to be radical incompetents on both the national and state level for decades now — and are routinely running unqualified D-list celebrities for high office — Californians have decided not to put them in charge. Imagine that.
Here’s hoping that Democrats continue to fill out their ballots in the last week or show up at the polls on the 15th to make sure these Republicans understand that they aren’t going to put up with these undemocratic tactics in their state. Nothing would galvanize the Republican base more than if blue California succumbed to their bullshit.