Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Four reasons why the California recall is a ruse

California Gov. Gavin Newsom

Everyone should see the campaign to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom for what it really is: an effort to put someone in office with far less than 50 percent of the votes cast, according to the authors.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Brown is the former speaker of the California Assembly and former mayor of San Francisco. Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor in San Francisco.


Mail-in voting is underway for California's Sept. 14 special recall election. It's a horse race with surveys showing the incumbent, Gov. Gavin Newsom, with a bit of a lead. But polling in recent years has been really far off.

The recall is clearly not what observers have called the Jan. 6 events in Washington, D.C. – an attempted "coup" to overturn an election. But everyone should see the recall for what it is: an effort to do what cannot be done in a general election, namely putting someone in office with far less than 50 percent of the votes cast.

Nice work if you can get it!

Here are four reasons why the recall is an anti-democratic ruse.

1. The rules favor those who want to upset the apple cart of democracy.

None of the 46 candidates running to replace Newsom has to win half the votes. Only the first question on the ballot requires majority approval: Should Newsom be recalled? Opposing the recall requires a "No" vote. If a majority of voters answer "Yes," the candidate with the most votes becomes governor, even if they garner only 25 percent support. Or less.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

2. The folks behind it can't win the normal way.

Most of the 46 candidates to replace Newsom, a Democrat, are Republicans. John Cox, who lost to Newsom for governor in 2018, has pumped at least $5 million into TV ad-buys to support the recall and his current candidacy.

Unsuccessful Republican candidates for Congress in Southern California led two of the three groups who initiated the recall.

Orrin Heatlie, a retired Yolo County sheriff's sergeant and leading recall proponent, describes himself as mainstream. But he has major support from the fringes, including the Proud Boys, the militant group whose members are charged with assaulting Capitol Police on Jan. 6.

Heatlie had a 2019 Facebook post that read: "Microchip all illegal immigrants. It works! Just ask Animal control." He has since walked it back as not intended to be taken literally.

On that front, leading Republican candidate Larry Elder mentored Donald Trump's feverish anti-immigration guru, Stephen Miller, and in 2016 emailed him: "I hope to live to see when you are elected President."

3. Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on an election that would have happened the right way a year later.

Seven of 10 California voters say it's a waste to spend the estimated $215 million that the special election will cost taxpayers. Newsom would need to face voters in November 2022 anyway if he wants a second term.

Most voters would limit recalls to situations where a governor committed a crime or engaged in indisputably unethical conduct. Newsom did neither. His misstep that energized this recall's backers was his visit to a luxury restaurant during severe Covid restrictions.

Bad optics, for sure, but not a crime or unethical. A vote against the recall would send a message that Californians think the $215 million was misspent and that recall elections should be limited to special circumstances.

4. It could be a stealth way to shift power in the federal government.

We're all vulnerable to accident or illness, including U.S. senators. If a Republican becomes governor through the recall, and a new senator were needed before November 2022, a Republican appointee would swing the chamber to a GOP majority, completely changing control of Congress' legislative branch. Mitch McConnell would be re-anointed majority leader.

That could occur legitimately, of course, if the country votes in 2022 for more Republican Senate candidates than Democratic candidates. But democracy would be undermined if that result were to follow from substantially less than half of California's voters selecting the winning candidate for governor.

The recall can be justified only as a partisan maneuver. Every vote counts, for California and for the nation.

Read More

Education is Key to Winning the AI Revolution

Two young students engaging in STEM studies.

Getty Images, Kmatta

Education is Key to Winning the AI Revolution

As the Department of Education faces rounds of layoffs and threats of dissolution, prompted by the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), it is urgent to rethink and rededicate efforts to strengthen, broaden, and enhance STEM education from early childhood through post-secondary programs.

In order to realize the promise of an AI-driven future, technology and education leaders must address the persistent gaps between supply and demand for all highly skilled technical workers in the U.S.

Keep ReadingShow less
Defining the Democracy Movement: Stephen Richer
- YouTube

Defining the Democracy Movement: Stephen Richer

The Fulcrum presents The Path Forward: Defining the Democracy Reform Movement. Scott Warren's weekly interviews engage diverse thought leaders to elevate the conversation about building a thriving and healthy democratic republic that fulfills its potential as a national social and political game-changer. This series is the start of focused collaborations and dialogue led by The Bridge Alliance and The Fulcrum teams to help the movement find a path forward.

Stephen Richer is the former Recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, and a current Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center at Harvard University.

Keep ReadingShow less
Together, We Must Repair a “House Divided”

A wooden cut-out of a home.

Getty Images, Andrii Yalanskyi

Together, We Must Repair a “House Divided”

“My Father’s house has many rooms…” John 14:2-3

Lately, I’ve been seeing everything through a political lens whether I want to or not. So, it didn’t surprise me that a Biblical verse at a recent memorial service got me thinking about then-Senator Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 speech about a “House Divided.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Should the Occupational Safety And Health Administration Be Abolished?

Should the Occupational Safety And Health Administration Be Abolished?

Recent legislation reintroduced in Congress has sparked renewed debate about the role of federal workplace safety regulations in America. The Nullify Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act, commonly known as the "NOSHA Act," proposes the complete elimination of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency responsible for ensuring safe and healthy working conditions across the United States since 1970.

The bill, originally introduced in 2021 and recently reintroduced by Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs, consists of just two substantive sections. Its purpose is clear and direct: "The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is repealed. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is abolished."

Keep ReadingShow less