If Gov. Gavin Newsom gets recalled, blame the French Laundry affair. The governor attended a birthday party there (with lobbyists no less) after ordering everyone else to mask up and socially distance.
The moral of that story is voters hate a hypocrite. And, Gov. Newsom compounded the mistake by concocting a silly rationalization about how it was really OK for him because this lobbyist was a longtime friend and the restaurant told him it was OK. After withering criticism, he apologized. Will it be enough to save him? Who knows?
What we do know is that there will be a recall, probably held sometime this fall. Here’s what will happen, according to the CalMatters news site:
“Voters will be asked two questions: Do they want to recall Newsom, yes or no? And, if more than 50% of voters say “yes,” who should replace him?
“This is where things get strange. There’s no limit on the number of candidates who can run to replace an official on a recall ballot. And whoever gets the most votes wins — even without a majority. So it’s entirely possible that someone could be elected in a recall while winning less than half the votes. That’s what happened in 2003, when then-Gov. Gray Davis was recalled by 55% of voters. More than 100 people ran to replace him, carving up the votes and allowing action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger to win with 48.6% support.”
From there we go from strange to stranger. The best known person running so far is Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce, the male Olympic athlete turned female reality TV star. Adding to the entertainment value, Jenner’s candidacy has driven the Bay Area LGBTQ community batty. Of course, they’d like nothing more than to see a trans-gen governor, but a conservative trans-gen governor? Oh, hell no!
Get the popcorn ready. It’s going to be an interesting fall.
WOMEN WITH KIDS
If I’m to be honest, I’d say Newsom will survive the recall. But as I always say when venturing crap-shoot predictions, my opinion and $2.50 will get you a medium coffee at Starbucks. More worrisome for the governor, I would think, is that polls show Newsom losing support among women and people who have kids at home. From May 2020 to January 2021, his support in both groups has sharply dropped.
On that front, you can put a lot of the blame on the governor’s failure to lead in getting kids back into in-person school this winter and spring. In dropping that ball, the governor irritated a lot of parents. Trust me, it will be a factor if the 2021-22 school year starts badly, and then the recall election is held.
Timing will be everything.
NO BABY BOOM
In case you missed it, the pandemic has not produced more babies, as some predicted. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “California’s birth rates in January and February — around the time when early pandemic babies would be due — declined by 15% compared to the same period last year, the steepest year-over-year decline for those months since at least 1960.”
Now you know.
WORLD’S WORST D.A.
The world’s worst D.A. — Chesa Boudin — declined to prosecute a father who allegedly abused his child, not once, but twice. The third episode resulted in the death of the 7-month-old child. Boudin then charged the man with murder.
The Boudin nightmare continues.
ONE MORE THING
— Math is the only subject that counts.
— Do not spell part backwards. It’s a trap.
— On diet day, I always remove all the good food from the house. And, it is delicious.
— I ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon. I’ll let you know.
And with that, I’ll let myself out. See you next week. Be well. Be kind.
(Sherman R. Frederick is the founder of Battle Born Media, a newspaper company dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. He may be reached at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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