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Feb. 11, 2021 - Epoch Times
31:26
Will California’s Governor Gavin Newsom Face a Recall? | Anne Dunsmore
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There's an effort to recall the governor of California.
Who is behind this recall?
We're hearing in some reports they're saying the far-right movement is behind this recall.
Right.
You can't profile the people, the 1.4 million who have already signed, the 2 million that will ultimately sign this petition.
It's like he woke up the largest demographic of voters in the state and possibly the nation.
What type of people are the donors?
A lot of them are moderate Democrats.
We call them Mod Dems and we also call them sort of the moderate Republicans.
They're sort of in the middle.
They vote frequently, but they don't volunteer.
They're not activists.
They're not going to rallies.
They look at their decision making and they just vote.
What are the issues that are frustrating people?
We have the highest taxes.
We have the highest homeless rate in the nation.
We have the highest jobless rate in the nation.
These are not lists that anybody ought to be bragging about being number one on.
People just saying, I have no faith that California will come back in my lifetime.
And I can only hope that if my children choose to stay here, that something happens.
How can voters ensure that they don't end up in the same situation?
Don't lose hope.
Don't leave.
Help fix the problem.
Stay here.
Do your homework.
Vote.
Become active.
Teach your children how to be active.
And by all means, please have reasonable conversations about what the solutions are and how they can be accomplished.
The campaign to recall Governor Gavin Newsom is gaining momentum and approaching the 1.5 million needed signatures.
My guest today is Ann Donsmore.
She's the campaign manager and finance director of Rescue California.
Today, she discusses why the governor is facing a recall and the possibility of it happening.
Welcome to California Insider.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me here.
There's an effort to recall the governor of California.
We want to talk to you about it.
A lot of people are talking about this effort and they're saying it may not go through.
Can you tell us your opinion?
Train left the station.
Train left the station.
It's going through.
We're ahead of schedule on the accumulation of signatures.
We're at 1.4 today as we speak.
We will probably be at 1.5 early next week.
We have four more weeks, almost five.
So at the rate, if you just took the rate that we're going at, we'll hit the numbers that we need to hit.
And I think we'll actually be ahead of that.
And there's a process of verifying these signatures.
So you need 1.5 million verified signatures, right?
Valid.
Valid.
Yes.
And how many do you need to make sure that this validation process happens?
Because there's a certain percentage that we get.
Sure.
You know, you really want to try and have an 82% validity rate, which would put us at 1.8 million as a buffer.
Some campaigns have been able to do 1.6.
That's 110% and get there.
We're going to go for a minimum of 1.8.
And frankly, our goal is 2 million.
And so we're on track to do that.
And then what's going to come next if you get $2 million?
What's the process?
Well, then it starts getting a little interesting because that's where they can really sort of game the system, the people that don't want to see this recall succeed.
And that is, you know, it's taking the process, which is very cumbersome.
You know, you have to...
Turn in all the signatures to every single county registrar or voters.
That's the first part.
And we've been doing that weekly because we know that the first thing they'll say is, oh, we've got too much and it's going to take us extra time, so we need to move the deadline back.
We're trying to mitigate that by turning them in weekly.
So the registrars then have time to finish counting and validating.
And the validation means, are there duplicates?
Are they registered to vote?
Those are the two key points that they look for to take a name off or leave it on or make it valid.
But then they also, you know, was the petition signed out properly?
So we do in-house validation before we send the signatures down to the counties.
And we're working very closely with the original petitioners in doing that.
We use the same internal validation company.
And then the original petitioners are the ones that are required to actually submit the signatures to the counties.
Then there's a period of time once we say, OK, we're done submitting signatures, which will be in the beginning of March.
The deadline is March 17th, but you never want to use that day as your submission date.
You want to go well in advance of that, and you say, we're done now.
And from that point on, they have a certain period of time to finish counting, the counties.
The counties then report back up to the Secretary of State.
This is going to sound very tangled, and it is.
It's typical bureaucracy, and that's what they're going to game as the bureaucratic Loopholes that allow them to extend and extend and extend what is ultimately going to be the setting of a date for a special election.
I think if they game it completely to the nth degree, you're looking at an election that in June The lieutenant governor, once everybody reports to everybody else and so forth and so on, that the lieutenant governor announces the setting of a date for a special election that will be sometime in late August and no later than mid-September,
which is lovely because we've got a whole other round of bills coming up that have to be signed by whoever the governor is by October 15th.
And who is behind this recall?
We're hearing in some reports they're saying the far-right movement is behind this recall.
Right.
Okay, well, that's normal.
That's what they've been saying about anything that looks like a citizen movement for the last few years.
This is a citizen movement.
You can't profile it.
That, for me, was the most...
Compelling reason to get involved as a professional who's been in this business for way too long, you know, 40 some odd years.
You can't profile the people, the 1.4 million who have already signed, the 2 million that will ultimately sign this petition, as a way to voice their unhappiness with Gavin Newsom's lack of understanding of what is impacting his citizens in this state and the discomfort and the impossibility of maintaining a quality of life that's healthy.
And have you seen the people that are involved?
Who are the people that are giving the signatures?
What are the things that they are not satisfied with?
Every day.
It's amazing.
It's like he woke up the largest demographic of voters in the state and possibly the nation.
And that is the baby boomers.
These are people my age.
They're in their 60s.
They're getting close to retiring.
They have children.
They have parents who are still alive.
Their children have children.
It's four generations.
And in some cases, every single one of those generations is voting.
So one of the things that struck me was sort of the number of women who are just saying, listen, I don't have a job, and there's one thing I'm going to do with my time, and that is I'm going to go collect signatures.
The original petitioners have 5,000 people.
On the street, getting signatures every week.
And this has been going on for over a year.
They're exhausted, but they're in the home stretch.
They're motivated.
They've got their second, third, and fourth wind in some cases.
And they are just kicking it.
They're doing a great job.
When you do what we're doing, which is coming in with air support, we're mailing...
We've mailed now 3.5 million households.
That will have been completed today.
With the last 400,000, it's a broad universe of voters.
It isn't just Republicans.
You'd think that our numbers would be going down in response to the direct mail.
We're maintaining two signatures per return petition, and we're also raising An inexplicable amount of money.
When people send back the petition, they also send back money.
We'll get into that in a little bit, but the metrics on that are just crazy and very indicative of the groundswell and the incomparable Thank you.
Thank you.
The number of signatures required is based on a 12% of the last voter turnout in a gubernatorial race.
So we're seeing a groundswell that I challenge them to continue to make this political.
It's not political.
It's a citizen movement.
Everybody is unhappy with him.
Otherwise, you wouldn't see terms like plummeting and tanking being used in response to the new numbers that are out on his polling and his approval ratings.
And I don't think he's hit bottom yet, but he will.
And what are the frustrations of these people with?
What are the issues that are frustrating people?
You know, if you look at, you know, what used to be called the soccer moms, but they can't be soccer moms anymore because you can't play sports.
So what are they now?
And I've decided to start calling them the mad moms.
And they're very level headed.
They're very focused on doing whatever they can to stay in this state where they were planning on retiring.
Or raising their children if they're, you know, in their 30s and 40s.
Or, you know, they've already retired.
They're senior citizens.
They want to stay around their children and their grandchildren.
And they can't afford it.
We have the highest taxes in the nation.
We have the highest homeless rate in the nation.
We have the highest jobless rate in the nation.
These are not lists that anybody ought to be bragging about being number one on.
And that's what you're seeing.
And then you see the reasons for it every day.
Shuttered businesses, commercial real estate available for lease signs everywhere you go, people, friends and family fleeing the state.
People just saying, I have no faith that California will come back in my lifetime.
And I can only hope that if my children choose to stay here, that something happens.
And I will try my best to do something about that.
That's what you're seeing.
That's what you're hearing.
That's what you feel.
Whenever the topic comes up, it's bordering on sad.
And as we all know, anger is a version of sad and hopeless when you reach down into the reasons that people are feeling this way.
So I say to the governor and anybody else who's advising him, go ahead and keep on this track because you do that and you continue to be political and label this.
As a Trump movement or a white supremacist movement or a coup, you're being unreasonable, you're being unfair, and this is why you are not serving the citizens of this state, because you don't understand how they're feeling and how your lack of planned policies are impacting their life.
You screw around with their children and their children's future, and you're going to start seeing even more resentment.
So keep it up.
It's flaming the fire.
So we're in the middle of pandemic.
What about the people that would say, okay, we've never seen something like this.
And if you're a governor in this situation, you will have to make decisions, maybe harsh decisions.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, that's another list that we're number one on, the worst state.
Actually, I think there's one other state that's worse than we are.
I think we lost that spot, that gold medal.
But we're also the worst state for the vaccine rollout.
And there's a lot of goofing around with numbers on that.
When somebody says we have a million vaccines, Cut it in half.
That's the number of people that will get those vaccines because that's two vaccines per person, not one.
And go ahead and keep blaming the counties that you don't like and supporting the counties that you do like.
Ultimately, you're either in a leadership role on this or you're not.
Are you going to take responsibility for the success and therefore also the failure?
Or when it fails in a certain area, you're going to try and off it on another group of people, elected officials.
I say go ahead and continue to not pay attention to really what's aggravating people, and that's on the top of the list.
Now, that might be getting better.
Who knows?
But we're about to hit a replay of last year.
Are we going to be closed or open this summer?
Are you going to obliterate Our tourism revenue, as well as all other revenue, again this summer, or are you going to close the beaches and the parks again?
Nobody knows.
It's a seesaw process that he's putting everybody through.
And the reason for that is that he's politically motivated and driven, not policy-driven.
And that's an ever-changing landscape that's a very dangerous cocktail for the well-being of any economy and the lack of confidence that the citizens have that actual remedies are going to come about.
Can you elaborate more how he's politically driven versus policy-driven?
Oh, sure.
I don't think that anybody will say, oh, no, lifting the restrictions that this last week that he put in not two weeks before that had nothing to do with the recall.
I think pretty much everybody understands that he looked and said, oh boy, I got some things that I've got to make look better, or I am in trouble.
That awareness is actually becoming more apparent.
I think a month ago, I think a week ago, there were probably advisors that were still telling him this isn't going to happen.
Don't worry about it.
Certainly they were telling him that a month ago.
Certainly they were telling him that last year when he signed a bunch of bills that closed 20 prisons this year.
That changed the age of consensual sex, I think, to 14.
These are things that we haven't even been able to bring up again because he's done so many things since then that also fly in the face of reason on solutions.
So, you know, another classic, and I love Willie Brown, and I'm pleased that I've had the opportunity to work with both he and Pete Wilson.
On true policy resolutions of things that really, when it came to really fixing a problem, the sunsetting of the sales tax, for example, in response to all of the awful things that were happening with the fires and the floods and the mudslides and the riots back in the day, They came together and found a solution to it and worked together, and I happened to be in the middle of that.
You don't see that.
There's no possibility of it.
Here you have a governor that has a super majority in both chambers of our legislature here in California.
There are Democrats in every single constitutional office there is to be had in this state, and we have policy issues.
Where they can't come to a consensus, you have Democrats kicking his tires right now on the decisions that he's making or lack thereof.
Willie Brown came out and said, and back to why I brought up Willie Brown, our former speaker and iconic figure in California.
Willie said, look, Gavin Newsom will have no problem if he fixes the education problem and he deals with the COVID pandemic.
What happens?
A week later, he comes out with a $2 billion program that he never even consulted with his own caucuses, if you will, what we refer to the third house, all the special interests that come to play in decision making up in Sacramento. all the special interests that come to play in decision The teachers, the administrators, they looked at that bill and kind of went, wait, this isn't what we would have come up with as a solution.
We've got, what, 30 seconds to file for grants that we don't think are the solution to the problem of getting the kids back to school.
And then you have public schools across the street from private schools, and one's closed and one's open, and the teachers want and need to have assurances before they support a back-to-school He did not do that.
Then the whole lifting of restrictions, a week after that, with no rhyme or reason, no basis in numbers, it just made everybody shake their head.
And so in this, now at this stage, do you see, I saw some notes about SEIU not being happy.
Yeah.
The unions that manage the city's employees, they're not happy with the vaccine rollout because they're getting excluded.
They're getting jumped, people are jumping in line.
And do you think that the Democrats are coming into this as well?
Well, you want to talk about social distancing.
Now let's talk about political distancing.
You're starting to see people look at their voter base.
First one up at bat was Cotty Petrie-Norris right down here in Huntington Beach.
She won by very little against Diane Dixon, and Diane Dixon's running against her again.
And Cotty Petrie Norris was one of the first people to say that the governor's approach or lack of approach to the COVID jobless benefits scandal, which is now $31 billion.
I mean, if she was flipping out when it was $500 million and saying a task force is not the answer to this problem, because he had just responded to it by saying, oh, just form a tax force.
Um, when you have people, you know, looking at slim margins in their district, um, and, and at what he's doing, I think you're going to see more and more right now.
They're sort of trying to bite their tongues because it's not going to help it that you are seeing that.
And you're looking at his own base going, Oh, and my guess is the minute we qualify or look like we're going to qualify.
In fact, I'm sure that there's already a little murmur going on about this already because I've heard it.
Competing factions inside his party are wondering whether or not they need to field another candidate to make sure that somebody in the party retains the governorship.
Now, do you think he would have a chance to change things, turn things around?
I don't think people would trust him if he said he did.
He spent a year showing everybody why we can't believe him anymore.
He's inconsistent.
He got caught lying.
Bold-faced lie.
I was not at the French Laundry.
And then there are pictures.
Oh, but I was there, but it was in an open air space.
Pictures showed otherwise.
So I don't like to use that word loosely, but I don't know what else you call that.
And so I don't think if he came up with a plan that it would necessarily change things because he doesn't have the time to implement it.
And if he does, it's too fast because he didn't think it out.
It wasn't planned.
And I suggest people start looking at the budget that he came up with for 21-22.
It's something else.
And now, on the funding of your campaign, what type of people are the donors?
Well, it's interesting because, you know, as a fundraiser, you have to sort of be fluid.
Everybody goes, what's your plan?
And it's like you have to kind of go with the flow and be able to see where you need to go.
So here's where we are today.
We have over 13,000, probably 14,000 after yesterday, contributors to Rescue California.
Rescue California is the organization that I manage.
We filed our papers after the extension was granted in November to the original petitioners.
We're rescuecalifornia.org.
They are Recall Gavin 2020, also known as California Patriot Coalition.
Huge volunteer operation, the biggest in the history of the United States, and it will go down in the record books.
They've gathered more signatures than anybody ever has from volunteer efforts, or I think anybody ever will.
So Rescue California has 13,000 contributors.
I think Recall Gavin has, you know, probably in the 5,000 range.
I think together we'll probably end up having about 25,000 combined.
Today, combined, we're at about $3.5 million.
Recall Gavin has about over $900,000 that they have raised.
We have raised somewhere in the neighborhood of about $2.5 million.
It's hard because we're getting a lot in every day.
I think by the time all is said and done, the signature gathering phase of this effort will be in the neighborhood of about $4 million, maybe more.
And who are these donors?
Are they politically driven?
Are they?
Yeah, so it's, you know, I'm going to talk about the direct mail.
So we went into the direct mail.
Our focus at Rescue California was to just make sure that three and a half million Republican households, where there's a lot of mixed registration, there's a lot of decline to state in these households, there's a lot of no party preference, We've learned now that no party preference, his numbers in that voting block are upside down on his approval raising, meaning his disapproval is higher than his approval.
So we've been actually getting a lot of signatures out of that, and 8% of the people who respond with a signature are also dropping a check in with the petition, and those contributions are averaging About $37.
Now, if you were mailing a list of known donors, not registered voters, known donors, you'd be doing a happy dance if you were getting an average of $18.
We're getting twice that.
And so it's a head-scratcher.
And so I'm going to guess that it's coming from people who are from a broad spectrum.
Our volunteer base is by far and away, you know, Not easy to profile as far as what they're registered at.
A lot of them were moderate Democrats, and I think that we call them mod Dems, and we also call them the moderate Republicans.
They're sort of in the middle.
They vote frequently, but they don't volunteer.
They're not activists.
They're not going to rallies.
They just vote.
They look at their decision-making, and they just vote.
That group has been Is now a woke community, and they are activists, and they are mad.
And a lot of them became independents, right?
They filed as no party preference.
Those people are very, very, very active.
I remember thinking when I saw a surfer.
At the beach, and he had a recall Newsom sign on his surfboard.
And I thought, oh, now he's in trouble.
Because that group just, you know, isn't necessarily the most politically active, you know, group in the world.
And that's when I decided to get involved.
And when I started seeing a 20 to 1 female to male ratio in the volunteer community, in the volunteer leadership, I knew it was a movement.
And it's reflected in the money.
And now, once you get the signatures, it looks like you're getting them, and you go through the process, then a special election happens.
What happens then?
There's two things on the ballot in late August, early September.
The Yes or no on the recall.
And it just needs to, the yes just needs to beat the no.
So yes, over 50%.
So if the no is over 50%, then the governor will stay.
Yes.
And if the yes beats the no, then there's a list of candidates?
Yeah, probably, like 2003, there was 135.
There's a list of candidates.
He can't be one of them.
So that's another thing out there is, oh my God, is he going to put his name on the ballot?
And the answer is no.
And we have a new governor.
If the recall wins, 50% or more, or over 50%, 50% plus one, then whoever has a plurality of votes, you could have a new governor with 20% of the vote, as long as that's more than anybody else.
So right now you have John Cox has said he's running as a Republican.
You have Kevin Faulkner, who is former mayor of San Diego, is running.
There's lots of sort of murmuring and chatter about other people like Rick Grinnell.
I think, and we've started getting some money.
You asked a little bit about the money that we've been getting.
We've gotten major donor money from people who give to both sides of the aisle and also some prominent Democrats.
Chamath Palahapitiya has contributed to our effort.
That's public knowledge, and he is a Democrat, and a very smart one, and very critical of Gavin Newsom's financial There are woes of which there are many in his planning and sort of his agenda.
So once that election happens, we have a new governor within seven to ten days and they are seated.
The law was created to get rid of a governor who was participating in criminal activities.
So there's nothing graceful about the recall process.
Once they're out, they're out.
No 30 day notice, nothing.
You're off the payroll.
How can voters ensure that they don't end up in the same situation?
You know, pay attention.
Keep reading.
Don't necessarily disregard what's in the media, but don't trust it.
Trust, but verify.
And you have a computer, if you have a cell phone, go online, pull down the budget.
Go online and fact check.
But I think the most important thing is Follow your moral compass and watch how people respond as human beings, not political animals.
Follow your gut.
I think everybody's gut is pretty well in tune with what's right and what's wrong at this point.
And if you can weed out the political rhetoric I think everybody would be well served.
Sure, I'm a Republican.
I've been a Republican, but I haven't been a Republican my whole life.
And I married Democrats.
So I've got an open view on these things.
I always have to defend my position.
I've got one daughter who's to the right of Attila the Hun and another one who's a tree hugger, you know, and I love them both and they love me.
And we have reasonable and productive conversations because at the end of the day, a democracy is designed for good people to disagree.
And when they have the point-counterpoint discussion, Solutions are born of those discussions.
When vitriol and name-calling and scare tactics are put into place, it takes away from the real solutions.
And I think that's the mess that Gavin Newsom has gotten himself into.
And so I would encourage people, don't go down that road.
Pay attention to what's real.
If you lost your job and you've been having a hard time going online and getting your jobless claim, I wonder how long it took for Scott Peterson to get his cash card.
I wonder how long it took for that $31 billion to evaporate from the financial well-being of this state.
So is that demanding accountability from politicians?
Yeah, and it really is also, you know, the voters have to be accountable.
You really do need to look at this now and decide if you're going to participate in solution-based proposals or if you're going to respond to tabloid magazines.
Look, I stand in line at the grocery store and look right at all the tabloids and say, I want to understand why that person, you know, It was in a flying saucer.
I'm going to go buy three of those, but I'm also going to do my research.
Do you have any other thoughts?
Well, I'm kind of excited about all of it because I see it as a rebirth, you know, and I've watched the last few years and good will come of it.
And I want people to know that there is hope.
Don't leave.
This is a wonderful state.
It's a beautiful place to live.
It has so much promise and it's given so much to so many generations that I don't lose hope.
Don't leave.
Help fix the problem.
Stay here.
Do your homework.
Vote.
Become active.
Teach your children how to be active.
And by all means, please have reasonable conversations about what the solutions are and how they can be accomplished.
We've been given an opportunity here to turn California around and make it that everything we can be here.
And that's what I want to participate in.
And I invite everybody else to do the same.
Thank you.
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