California

Duncan Grant

(8,262 posts) Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:35 PM Mar 2021

The Three Men Who Could Take Down Gavin Newsom

This is a good behind-the-scenes analysis of the “who and how” of the recall effort against California Governor, Gavin Newsom. It reeks of trump, racism and conservative extremism. Will it succeed? Let’s hope not. If it does, republicans will have another avenue to rule rather than govern — as well as, leveraging the minority against the majority.

The Three Men Who Could Take Down Gavin Newsom (Politico: 3/19/21)
The homebrew Republican campaign to recall California's governor is either a triumph of grassroots democracy—or a sign that in politics, there are no rules anymore.

Heatlie, who filed the initial recall paperwork, was off work and laid up with a bad back when he said he became “engaged in social media and Facebook-ing and YouTube and all that stuff.” It was only when he came across a 2019 video of Newsom advising immigrants of their right to refuse to open their door to anyone without a warrant that he began researching the possibility of a recall. Netter, a former office product sales executive who now sells real estate, said he initially “got a hair up my ass” not because of Newsom, but because of then-Senator Kamala Harris, who he saw as rising too fast through politics. When he found out senators couldn’t be recalled, he volunteered instead with a previous, failed effort to recall Newsom.

...Williams, who often moderates the recall proponents’ virtual town hall meetings, suggested the recall was only part of a bigger fight against “anti-Americans.” “California’s the head of the snake,” he said. “The rest of the tail is Sleepy Joe, and we’ve got to take back our country.”

He added, “I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and watch this whole country go to hell.”

... Heatlie acknowledges the campaign is “not just about recalling” Newsom, but of reimagining the way politics is run in California... In their minds, their crusade is broader than just taking down one governor: It’s as much against the Republican political establishment as it is against the Democratic one. Heatlie and Netter chafed when consultants told them they needed to raise millions of dollars to qualify a recall initiative. And though professionals like Gilliard and Anne Dunsmore, a well-known Republican fundraiser, had helped Heatlie and Netter last year, the two groups eventually split – coordinating with each other, but with separate books.