The latest effort to recall California governor Gavin Newsom has gained more than 1 million signatures, with nine weeks left to collect the additional 500,000 that would enable the measure to be placed on the ballot.
Should the recall effort receive 1.5 million total signatures by mid-March, a mid-year election would take place.
“The people are being heard loud and clear, and it is not a matter of IF we are going to reach our goal necessary that will trigger a recall election of Newsom, it is just when we cross the finish line,” Orrin Heatlie, the Lead Proponent of the official RecallGavin2020.com, said in a statement.
A senior adviser to the recall campaign, Randy Economy, previously told Fox News that it hoped to meet the benchmark required to place the measure on the ballot by mid-to late-January.
He told the outlet the effort is nonpartisan, with supporters of both Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and President Trump backing the cause.
While recall initiatives in the Golden State seldom make it onto the ballot, Newsom’s public image has been marred recently by a series of controversies, including his attendance at a mask-less, not-socially-distanced indoor dinner party late last year even as he enacted strict coronavirus restrictions in the state.
Economy said a number of the movement’s supporters believe the governor has mismanaged the state’s coronavirus response, particularly as it relates to small businesses.
Many small business owners in the state have lost their livelihoods while big-box stores have been allowed to remain open, he said.
Newsom “put corporate interests before the people of California,” Economy said.
In 2003, Gray Davis became the first governor to be recalled in the U.S. since 1921. The vacancy was ultimately filled by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.