California Democrats united this weekend at their state party’s convention in defense of Gov. Gavin Newsom, as he faces a near-certain recall later this year.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday:
Democrats split during the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis after Lt. Gov Cruz Bustamante broke a pledge not to run and entered the field of replacement candidates. The entire delegation of California congressional Democrats opposed the recall but also supported Bustamante among that field, diluting Democratic support for keeping Davis. He lost, and Bustamante finished a distant second to Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Newsom’s camp is determined not to have anything like that happen to him. The weekend’s convention featured a parade of Democrats praising Newsom and denouncing the recall as everything from a waste of tens of millions of dollars to a scheme hatched by Donald Trump supporters to bypass the traditional election calendar. The Republicans haven’t won a statewide office since 2006.
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Four Republicans are already running in hopes of replacing Newsom: San Diego-area businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in the 2018 governor’s race, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, former Sacramento-area Rep. Doug Ose, and reality TV star and former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete Caitlyn Jenner.
Newsom suffered a crash in approval this winter, as coronavirus restrictions dragged on and he was caught having a birthday dinner with lobbyists and friends at the elite French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley.
However, his poll numbers have rebounded as the state has lifted restrictions, schools have reopened, and vaccine deliveries have accelerated. A majority of California voters say they would vote to retain Newsom, though the recall campaign easily surpassed the 1.5 million signatures needed to put the question on the ballot this year. Newsom is up for re-election, regardless, in 2022.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, We Told You So!: The First 100 Days of Joe Biden’s Radical Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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