CA Democrats Propose $215M To Expedite Newsom Recall Election

CALIFORNIA — Democratic leaders of the state Legislature are proposing $215 million to be included in the state budget to cover costs related to the recall election to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The boost in funds, legislators said, would allow for an earlier recall election date, which the governor's supporters believe could help keep him in office.

The proposal to cover the costs came just hours after the California Department of Finance estimated that a gubernatorial recall election could cost California's 58 counties a collective $215 million.

In a statement, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) said the proposal to include the estimated costs in the state budget would allow the Legislature to waive the required period to review election costs for counties, which could save time and speed up the election process.

"Our local communities don’t deserve to be saddled with unnecessary recall costs as they work to recover from the pandemic," Democratic leaders said in a joint statement. "The Legislature will lift the burden from their plate and include $215 million in the budget bill to have the state cover the costs. In addition, this funding will allow for an earlier recall election."

Responding to the estimate released by the Department of Finance, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has announced plans to run in the recall election, said the cost is a "fraction" of the $30 billion in Employment Development Department fraud that plagued the state.

"The recall cost is a fraction of the $30 billion in EDD fraud Gavin Newsom has presided over. He sent tens of billions of dollars to criminals, including violent felons and people out of state. When we recall Newsom, Californians will save billions of dollars," Faulconer tweeted.

The recall campaign to oust the Democratic governor did not gain the traction supporters had hoped for at this point, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Poll.

Just 36 percent of California's voters who participated in the May 11 poll said they would recall the governor, unchanged from January. And 49 percent said they would vote "no" in the recall, up four points from three months ago. Another 15 percent said they were undecided, the survey found.

And none of the four prominent Republican candidates have generated much support either. Fewer than one in four voters statewide said they would back any of them. Newsom's approval rating has also risen in recent months as coronavirus cases dwindled and vaccinations rose.

Some 52 percent of California's voters said they approve of the job he's doing now. But he's still far behind where he was last September when 64 percent of voters were pleased with his governance.

READ MORE: CA Recall Poll: 6% Would Vote For Jenner, Newsom's Approval Rises

According to another recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, 40 percent of likely voters said they would vote "yes" to remove Newsom from office, while 57 percent would vote to keep him in office.

"The remarkably stable opposition to the recall of Gavin Newsom is driven by a large and consistent partisan divide that favors the Democratic governor," said Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO.

Originally, the election was forecast for the fall, but as Democratic leaders seek to expedite the process with a massive amount of funding, the election could come as early as late summer. In the meantime, those who have declared their candidacy will have several steps to complete before they can become certified runners in the election.

No prominent Democrat has announced any plans to run, and Newsom cannot appear as a replacement for himself on the recall ballot. So the election will likely pit Newsom against a variety of Republican hopefuls.

The Democratic governor has called the recall election a "partisan power grab" and condemned the effort as a Republican-driven effort to thwart his progressive efforts.

"Now is not the time to waste hundreds of millions of dollars on a recall effort that is nothing more than a partisan power grab," Newsom said previously. "I hope people take the time to discover what this actually is."

READ MORE: CA Recall Election: Who Is Running?