1 Million People Sign Newport Beach 'Recall Gov. Newsom' Petition

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — Organizers of the Newport Beach-based effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom have gathered 1 million signatures toward that end, they announced Tuesday.

Anne Hyde Dunsmore, a former finance chair of the California Republican Party who is an honorary chair of Rescue California, which is gathering signatures for the recall effort. Organizers need about 1.8 million signatures by mid-March to qualify the recall for the ballot, according to Dunsmore.

"One million frustrated Californians have signed the official recall petition," said Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the recall campaign. "We are two-thirds of the way to allowing voters to choose a new governor and a new direction for the state."

Dunsmore has expressed the campaign's goal is 2 million signatures. If all goes to the organizers' plan, a recall election would be held in late August or mid-September.

In Dunsmore's assessment, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018, are among the potential candidates to replace Newsom.

On Monday, the organization received 12,000 letters from voters who responded to a direct-mail campaign, Dunsmore said.

"There had to be 20,000 signatures in there," she said.

The campaign also received a big boost with a $500,000 donation from Orange County investor John Kruger. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kruger's goal is to reopen churches. A spokesperson for Kruger's Prov. 3:9 LLC says that Kruger is the lone member and has funded "charitable works in the past."

According to the California Secretary of State's Office, the campaign has received many large donations, such as $49,000 from the Carol and Dixon Doll Family Foundation. According to the state records, Douglas Leone of Los Altos donated $49,900, and Edward Brown of Word and Brown donated $25,000.

The Hoffmann Land Development Company of Walnut Creek donated $49,500, Susan Groff $45,000, and Brian Cereghino, CEO of IPAC Inc., donated $20,000.

City News Service contributed to this report.