LOS ANGELES – California on Saturday released a list of 41 candidates running in the recall election against Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who stand out for those who didn’t: Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder.
LOS ANGELES – California on Saturday released a list of 41 candidates running in the recall election against Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who stand out for those who didn’t: Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder.
Elder, a Republican and regular at Fox News, announced his candidacy on July 12, bringing a prominent right-wing voice into a Republican field seeking to oust Newsom.
But he was not on the Foreign Minister’s list of candidates who qualified for the September 14 election.
Ying Ma, a spokeswoman for the Elder campaign, said she expected him to be on the final candidate list, which will be published next week. “Our campaign has submitted all of the documents required by the Secretary of State and the Los Angeles County Registrar” to qualify for the vote, she said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear which requirement Elder was not fulfilling.
The list of candidates ranges from famous to anonymous and includes 21 Republicans, eight Democrats, one libertarian, nine Independents and two Greens.
The total number of candidates was fewer than many had expected – some predictions included a parade of over 100 candidates on the ballot.
That could be a setback for Recall supporters who had hoped for a large, prominent field to win voters over to the first, crucial question: Should Newsom be recalled, yes or no? If that question fails, the dismissal is over and Newsom remains in office, with the potential replacement candidates being irrelevant in the second round of voting.
If Newsom is removed from office, whoever receives the most votes on the list of potential successors will be the new governor of the nation’s most populous state. If there are numerous candidates and no clear front runner, it is possible that the winner will receive less than 25% of the votes.
The recall date was set earlier this month after Republican organizers easily cleared the 1.5 million petition signatures required to get the proposal on the ballot. The urge to oust Newsom is largely rooted in frustration at the prolonged school and business closings during the pandemic that changed the daily lives of millions of Californians.
Some of the leading Republican candidates have been campaigning for months, but no Democrat with political stature has chosen to run, giving Newsom an important, incremental victory. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was elected after voters removed Democratic Governor Gray Davis. Many believe Davis was damaged when another Democrat, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, entered the race.
But that can also backfire. Polls have shown Newsom would fight back the recall. But should he lose in any excitement, there would be no established Democrat among the replacement candidates, potentially paving the way for a Republican to take over the office.
Though there are some notable figures, this year’s list lacks the vigor of contenders for the state’s circus-style recall of 2003. Among the 135 names on the ballot that year were former child star Gary Coleman, pornographer Larry Flynt, the former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and the political expert Ariana Huffington, who left shortly before the election.
Polls have shown that many voters are ignoring this year’s competition, and there were no new candidates on Saturday who appeared to have the potential to reorder the race’s trajectory.
When it comes to running requirements, the bar is relatively low. A candidate must be a citizen of California, registered or eligible to vote, and must not be convicted of bribery or theft of public funds. Candidates must pay an application fee of approximately $ 4,200 and submit at least 65 valid nomination signatures with their candidacy statement. You will also need to submit copies of federal tax returns for the past five years.
A certified list – which voters will see – will be posted on Wednesday and changes are allowed. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the candidates who have submitted the required documents include:
– Kevin Paffrath, 29, is a YouTuber who gives financial advice to its 1.7 million subscribers. The Democrat says his lack of “political baggage” is a good thing. Anyone who wins the recall election would be governor for a little over a year before the next election, which Paffrath compared to a trial run. His proposals include building underground tunnels for new roads and lowering income taxes. The multimillionaire denies that his candidacy was a ploy to generate more publicity.
– Jeff Hewitt, 68, is a Riverside County supervisor. He wrote in The Orange County Register that he was taking part in the race because “this state no longer has dreams, encourages ideas, or solves problems.” He argues that the state needs a new approach, and as a liberal he is able to work with Democrats and Republicans.
– Joel Ventresca, 69, is a Democrat but says he is further left on some issues than Newsom and even Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. “I consider Newsom to be a corporate, well-established inside Democrat,” he says. Ventresca’s premier campaign platform is free “cradle to grave” health care and education for everyone in California. He retired from San Francisco International Airport in 2018, where he held multiple roles and ran for Mayor of San Francisco in 2019. He received 7% of the vote.
– Sam Gallucci, 60, a Republican, is a former technology manager and senior pastor at Embrace! Church in Oxnard, California. He also leads service to vulnerable women and children as well as migrants. In his technical career, he rose to the ranks of the company and became executive vice president and general manager of the software company PeopleSoft. Oracle acquired the company in 2004 for $ 10.3 billion. He says, “the soul of our state has been lost”.
– Caitlyn Jenner, 71, is a lifelong Republican trying to turn her celebrity into a surprise win. She won the men’s decathlon gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, married and became a reality TV star with the Kardashian family, and came out as a transgender woman in 2015. She has described herself as a social liberal tax conservative. But she’s been shown to be prone to slip-ups in interviews, and some polls have shown she isn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger who used the power of his celebrity to become California’s governor in a 2003 recall election.
– John Cox, 66, was the Republican candidate for governorship in 2018, losing to Newsom in a landslide. This time the multimillionaire businessman has shown the instincts of a showman and once fought with a Kodiak bear to show that he wants to make “beastly” changes in California. He has been looking for public office for a long time. Starting in 2000, Cox ran for the US House of Representatives and twice for the US Senate in his old home state of Illinois, but stayed behind the scenes with overcrowded Republican primary elections. He also led a largely unnoticed campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
– Doug Ose, 66, is a multimillionaire businessman and former Republican Congressman who represented a county in the Sacramento area from 1999-2005. He calls Sacramento broken, refers to the homeless crisis, rising gas taxes and rising crime rates. He calls for regional debates. “Californians are fed up with a governor whose operational issues are hypocrisy, selfishness, half-truths and mediocrity,” says Ose. In 2018 he briefly ran for governor.
– Jacqueline McGowan, 46, Democrat, is a former stockbroker and advocate for cannabis policy reform. She rushes to draw attention to what she calls a legal cannabis market crisis. Legal marijuana is not available in many parts of the state. She says the state has largely turned its back on the problems in the industry. It would lower pot taxes and push communities that have not established local markets to open the door to legal sales.
– Kevin Faulconer, 54, is a Republican who was twice elected mayor of Democratic-minded San Diego and stepped down last year. He was an early entrant in the recall race and has long been viewed as a potential statewide candidate due to his centrist credentials in heavily democratic California. He has presented himself as a problem solver who can work across the political gang and touted his job of keeping homeless camps off the streets while they spread unhindered in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
– Steve Chavez Lodge, 62, is a retired homicide detective and a small business owner. He gained notoriety when he became engaged to reality TV personality Vicki Gunvalson, who appeared on the Real Housewives of Orange County for 15 years. The Republican says “California is completely broken” and promises to “get the government out of our lives … and out of our wallets”. He has also served on local government commissions.
– Kevin Kiley, 36, is a Sacramento area Republican MP who turned out to be a favorite among GOP volunteers collecting petition signatures for the recall. He made a name for himself as a strong conservative and one of Newsom’s most vocal critics, and is considered a rising figure in the California GOP.
Michael R. Blood and Kathleen Ronayne, The Associated Press
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