Recall Leader: We Have the Signatures for a Vote on Gavin Newsom

By
Ben Cope
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Tom del Beccaro, leader of the ongoing effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, announced Wednesday evening that the campaign had reached the 1.5 million signatures required to put the matter to a vote — but will keep going.

“EVERYONE: We have over 1.5 mill raw signatures but they are not all verified,” del Beccaro tweeted. “My message is that 1.5m sounds great but is NOT ENOUGH. To ensure qualification we need 1.9 million.”

Del Beccaro, who ran against Kamala Harris in the 2016 primary for U.S. Senate in California, noted that the campaign needed to pad its signature total by the March 17 deadline, in the event that some signatures were challenged and tossed.Newsom would become the first California governor to face a recall vote since Democrat Gray Davis in 2003, who lost and was replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. There have been 55 past attempts to recall a governor; only the recall against Davis formally qualified for a ballot.

The California Secretary of State’s website notes: “Since 1913, there have been 178 recall attempts of state elected officials in California. Ten recall efforts collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot and of those, the elected official was recalled in six instances.

Several candidates, including both Republicans and Democrats, have already indicated their interest in participating in a recall election, should one qualify for the ballot.

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