It’s official, Governor Newsom will have to defend his Governorship in a 2021 Recall Election as enough signatures have been verified to trigger it. The recall election could have only been triggered if more than 1.5 million signatures were turned in by the March deadline.
It took nearly a month and a half for the signatures to be verified and it appears that just over 1.6 million of the signatures were determined to be valid. This means that unless a significant number of signatures are withdrawn within the next thirty days, the recall election will have to be scheduled by the conclusion of 2021.
Some candidates have already seen this day coming, as Caitlyn Jenner had recently declared her candidacy for California Governor as a Republican. Other candidates have also entered the race and the possibility of many more joining the field of candidates is likely.
Governor Newsom’s approval ratings continued to fall in the weeks after the peak of the pandemic. Scandals and mistakes in his leadership have led him down a path that now faces a recall election.
From a general point of view, you might think that there’s absolutely no chance that a Democratic Governor in the State of California actually gets recalled. The problem is that recent polls show a competitive battle and many voters are still undecided. Angry citizens may be motivated to vote Newsom out of office and it could be anyone’s guess as to who replaces him in a crowded field of candidates.
Popular betting sites only place Newsom’s recall possibility at around 15%. That’s pretty significant and the odds of that percentage going up increase with every additional candidate that enters the race.
Newsom has some time to win back voters but it’s getting harder and harder for him to maintain his popularity as new scandals continue to pop up. Newsom has managed to anger a lot of different voter demographics since the pandemic started and this could be a major problem as he enters the recall election. Now that there are enough verified signatures to virtually guarantee a recall election in 2021, there’s no doubt that he’s going to have to defend his record and prove to voters that he’s willing to change and improve in the future.
