The California Secretary of State announced that more than 1.6 million signatures supplied by the organizers of the impeachment campaign against Governor Gavin Newsom were verified, which means there will be an election this fall for voters to determine at the polls, if they want to replace him or continue in office.
In a message on Twitter, the governor @ GavinNewsom said that “the Republican impeachment threatens our values and seeks to destroy the important progress we have made, from fighting COVID, helping suffering families, protecting our environment and passing common sense solutions to gun violence. There is a lot at stake. ”
To understand the impeachment process, Real America News spoke with various experts on the subject.
The impeachment process
The professor in political science of the community colleges of the city of Los Angeles, Chamba Sánchez said that the process of collecting and verifying signatures has finished. “Now there is a process in which people can withdraw their signatures. When this is over, the lieutenant governor will call an election. ”
The ballot will have two questions:
Should the Governor be removed? and Who should replace it?
The teacher clarifies that Newsom’s name should not be on the candidate list .
But what is the impeachment process.
Professor Sánchez explains that many states in this country practice what is known as direct democracy. “It is a process in which any elected official in the state can be removed by collecting a percentage of signatures of a number of votes. Is he 12%”.
Risks for Newsom
What are the chances that Newsom could be removed from office?
“California is a Democratic state. All branches of government are controlled by the Democrats. However, according to most surveys, 35% of voters support impeachment. In my opinion it is a somewhat high number if we take into account that this state is very democratic. ”
And he noted that while this effort is led by Republicans, there are also independents and some Democratic voters who are not satisfied with the governor’s vision and leadership.
“To defeat this impeachment, Democrats need to stick together. This means that no serious Democrat should put their name on the ballot. However, we have Antonio Villarraigosa (former mayor of Los Angeles) playing with the idea of competing. ”
In short, he pointed out that if not There are bigger problems in the state in the coming months, this will help Newsom survive this effort to remove him from office.
What were Newsom’s mistakes?
“Newsom has presidential aspirations, and this has kept him from being a proactive leader. California became the center of the pandemic, and people blame it for that. She also asked to avoid meetings and stay home while he went to dinner and wine with his wealthy friends. That hypocrisy angered people. ”
But also the distribution of the vaccine, at least at first, was not effective. “AND $ 35, 000 millions of unemployment were collected by inmates of the prisons while many people were starving in some parts of the state. ”
Removal of Davis vs. Removal of Newsom
Professor Sánchez details that Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympic decathlete who told the world that she was a transgender person in 2015 is not Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Republican side.
“I see that if Villarragoisa decides to compete, he will not have enough votes to replace Newsom.”
But Newsom, says the professor, seems to be making the same mistakes as Davis. “He is signing everything that falls on his desk. This shows that he is desperate and wants to look good to his Democratic friends. Exactly what Davis did. Davis signed the bill to license undocumented immigrants during the impeachment campaign and Arnold broke it down once he became governor. ”
Change of strategy
Professor Chamba said that Newsom needs to rethink his strategy to defeat the campaign that seeks to remove him. “He is linking this campaign to Trump, ‘anti-vaccines, Q-Anon conspiracy theorists and anti-immigrants.’ There is some of that, but he must also admit that he was wrong. ”
The academic concluded by saying that in the coming months we will be facing a distraction expensive and huge. “The state is facing daunting challenges. This is not . We are still dealing with the pandemic: people cannot find affordable housing, children have lost a year of learning and are behind, and this campaign will do nothing to explore solutions to these problems. ”
According to Probolsky Research, almost 45% of Latinos in California support impeachment . “This is very interesting. So they are not just Trump sympathizers, ”says Professor Sánchez.
A Republican point of view
Luis Alvarado, political consultant identified with the Republicans said that if in the campaign that removed Governor Gray Davis there were more than 200 candidates, this time could apply up to 400.
“The question is whether see a Democratic contender who has enough weight to take votes from Newsom. ”
As for the former mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa would run as a candidate in the contest to remove Newsom, Alvarado visualizes him doing mathematical formulas and calculations to decide whether or not to enter. “He can get into the last minute depending on how weak Newsom looks; and so can other politicians. ”
Unlike Governor Davis’s impeachment election, he said there will be more in Newsom’s voters because the ballots will be mailed.
And consider that the governor must be nervous because over the years, he built enemies within of the Democratic Party by ignoring Southern California politicians. “Now his campaign is trying to push Latino leaders to defend him.”
Alvarado reiterated that we will see many ‘clowns’ as candidates who have nothing to offer. “ Among the Republicans, the only one who has a chance is the former mayor of San Diego, Kevin Faulconer who understands the problems of California and can put you up to you with Newsom. The only negative thing is that they don’t know him all over California ”.
Mario Beltran, a Democratic consultant, said the odds of Newsom being removed from office are very low. “The arguments are emotional and even cartoonish. He made courageous decisions and did a good job and the best he could during the pandemic, while at the national level there was no leadership. ”
He highlighted that the legitimate suffering of people economically impacted by COVID, is being exploited by Republicans in favor of impeachment. “At the end of the day, I see it very difficult for them to be able to remove him, and for Villaraigosa to run as a candidate because he runs the risk of what happens to Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, who not only did not win the election but also politically disappeared.”