At least 41 candidates met last Friday’s deadline for filing to compete against Gavin Newsom in the gubernatorial recall election this fall. The date for the election is set for September 14th.

Among the candidates are former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, former Olympian and reality star Caitlyn Jenner, and businessman John Cox, the unsuccessful Republican nominee in 2018. Others include Jeff Hewitt, a supervisor in Riverside County, and Doug Ouse, a businessman and former Republican congressman. No establishment Democratic challengers are running, but some Democratic candidates still threw in their hats, including Jacqueline McGowan, a cannabis policy reform advocate, and Joel Ventresca, a 69-year-old who retired from his job at the San Francisco airport in 2018 and considers himself a leftist.

A mid-September election date means that California voters can expect to be bombarded with ads and mailers as campaign season ramps up over the next two months. Organizers of the Newsom recall effort say Californians who support the effort are upset over a range of issues, including Newsom’s handling of the pandemic and mandated closures, high taxes, and a worsening housing crisis. But Newsom has rejected the effort as a power grab by Trumpers. “This Republican recall is a naked attempt by Trump Republicans to grab control in California,” said Juan Rodriguez, an advisor with Newsom’s campaign. “On September 14, Californians will have the chance to defend our state and reject this Republican power grab once and for all.”

California and 19 other states allow their voters to recall the governor. The last time a governor was recalled here was in 2003 when former Gov. Gray Davis was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger. To launch a recall, proponents must collect signatures equal to 12% of the votes cast in the last election. In this case, that meant organizers needed at least 1,495,709 valid signatures from registered voters. They submitted more than 1.7 million signatures last spring. California’s Department of Finance estimates that the recall election will cost the state about $276 million to administer.

Voters will see two questions on the recall ballot: should the elected official be removed from office; and, if the official is removed, who should replace them? More than half of voters must respond “yes” to the first question for Newsom to be recalled. If that happens, and a single challenger also wins more than half of the votes on question #2, that person will replace Newsom. If not, the challengers with the most votes will go to a run-off.

The Republican National Committee spent $250,000 encouraging California voters to sign the recall petition. The California Republican Party has also donated more than $175,000 to support the recall effort. Meanwhile, the California Democratic Party has spent $750,000 to fight it, and Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Georgia voting rights organizer Stacey Abrams, have come out in support of Newsom. California labor, teacher, and health care workers groups also oppose the recall.

Isabelle Price

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