10 Comments

Please explain the math: Democrats lead Republicans in California 2 to 1. If 73% of 2/3 vote "no" to 78% of 1/3 the "no" votes should win.

Here are some realtime statistics: Our Saturday phone bank had 109 callers.

This demonstrates growing interest.

I just canvassed 100 houses: 30 "no" votes..the vast majority already voted. 2 "yes" votes. 6 undecided/ decline to state. I had an 80 year old answer the door and say passionately, "We can't let these F***ers win!"

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I've been frantically writing postcards with a local group, trying to convince/remind dems to vote! I'm glad that the ballots came by mail.

I'm PISSED that we have to fund this with taxpayer money. I think the GOP should have to reimburse the state's coffers AND shut the fuck up.

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And--a very big "and"--there's risk that a Republican governor may be in the position to appoint a successor to 88-year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein, putting the Senate gavel right back into Mitch McConnell's hands. Several Dems I've spoken with are considering, after voting NO on Question 1, voting for former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer as the "most moderate" of the Republicans. Please, no! Conservative political columnist Dan Walters wrote that "A Newsom loss and a Faulconer win would be a double-dose of bad news for the state's Democratic Party because of all the Republican candidates, he would have the best chance of winning a full term in 2022." (Elder, on the other hand, he believes, would be effectively countered by the huge Dem majorities in the Legislature and is so out of touch with CA's electorate that he wouldn't win in 2022.) One year is awful enough, five years catastrophic!

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With the recall a coin-toss, leaving the second question blank only hands the governorship to Elder if the recall ends up being successful. For Dems, there may be no good candidates, but there are a couple people who are much less terrible and dangerous than Elder. If we don’t vote for someone who is less objectionable than Elder and could plausibly beat him (e.g., Faulconer), then we’re letting the recall-backers select the next Governor if Gavin loses. I wouldn’t expect the Newsom campaign or the Dem party to encourage people to vote for any of the replacement candidates, but it’s bad public policy to straight-up tell people to not have a say in who their next governor might be.

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No on the recall, but YES on Pfeiffer… or Favreau…or Lovett….or Vietor. I don’t care, just pick one!

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Please tell us that Newsome has Scrooge McDuck-type money he’s keeping for the last two or three weeks to cover the airwaves and social media with get-out-the-vote messages? Please?

Now if we were Republicans… In September, if it still looks bleak, Diane Feinstein would resign, Newsome would appoint himself to fill the vacancy, Kounalakis would become governor. Lt Gov Kounalakis seems great. I read her memoir about her time as Hungarian Ambassador.

Aside from messaging from Newsome and us reaching out, will Kamala Harris rallying for him help? Is she still popular in CA?

I live in FL, wishing our idiot gov was being recalled. I am hoping he is so wrong on masks that he’s doing himself in, politically.

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I still feel like leaving the second question blank is a bad idea. While none of the democratic candidates would be great, we still need a democrat in office. We can't risk the situation Maril mentions in the comment below: losing the senate if a Republican governor gets to appoint a replacement for Sen. Feinstein. But whom should we attempt to unite the democratic vote behind if we don't leave the second question blank?

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Please talk about this on Thursday's Pod!

Friends of same are invited to phonebank with Swing Left Peninsula on Wednesdays or Saturdays here https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/403783/

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So very sorry for all of you out there. Hoping for the best.

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