After conservative Salem Radio Network talk host Larry Elder’s stunning court victory this week reinstating him to the September 14th ballot the “tectonic plates” have indeed just shifted in the race to recall California’s bloviating and incompetent Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom—once San Francisco’s mayor who almost single-handedly turned the city memorialized by singer Tony Bennett as the place “I left my heart” into a feces-laden homeless encampment that is dead last on any family’s list of vacation destinations—managed to become Governor of California through a combination of dumb luck (follow the bouncing ball: his aunt was once married to Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law)..the typical greasing of the skids for any Democrat (by professional race hustlers and the teachers unions, but I repeat myself)..and 2018’s underfunded GOP challenger John Cox. Newsom received 62% of the statewide vote, beating Cox by over 3 million votes.
But since moving up to lead America’s most populous state, Newsom’s term has been marked (one might more appropriately say pock-marked) by cost overruns on state projects including the dopey and unneeded “bullet train” between Los Angeles and San Francisco: originally budgeted at $33-billion (!)…under Newsom’s “leadership” the costs have ballooned to $110-billion, with—so far—no section completed.
Then there’s Newsom’s homeless crisis, which has left San Franciscans with hoboes on city streets… parks and landmarks infested with shopping carts and corrugated cardboard huts… and tourists having to download an app—I am NOT making this up—called SnapCrap which lets users take pictures of human poop on San Francisco's sidewalks or streets and send them to the city's Public Works Department to initiate a cleanup. Real quality of life stuff.
Add to that Gavin Newsom’s on/again off/again state mandates on masks which made California the laughingstock of the pandemic—even iconic, world-famous attractions like Disneyland remained shuttered while their Florida counterparts reopened. (Even when they did allow limited visitors back into Disneyland, patrons had to be warned to remain masked at all times and—don’t faint—to refrain from screaming on rides in the theme parks. Who was Newsom’s advisor on that one…Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest?)
Did any of this bother the Governor? Not really. He was photographed last November—maskless—at a swanky Napa restaurant called “The French Laundry,” with lobbyist Jason Kinney and other lobbyists who actually helped draft the Draconian social distancing rules the little people were required to follow across the Golden State while Gavin and his pals inhaled escargot and other delicacies.
With this as the backdrop, it surprised nobody that organizers of a ballot initiative to recall Governor Newsom easily collected 1.8-million signatures—300,000 more than needed—to force a September 14th vote.
Along with perennials like 2018 hopeful John Cox and others including a former San Diego mayor and assorted Legislature denisons, reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner briefly was on the radar as a candidate..although Jenner is said to be in Australia shooting another reality show.
But a late entry into the Recall race electrified the otherwise sleepy contest and promised to really shake things up: the aforementioned talk radio host Larry Elder announced he was stepping down as host on the Salem Radio Network (full disclosure: that’s where I work, and Salem also owns the Townhall website where you’re reading this) to seek the Governorship.
Only Kreskin could predict Elder’s chances as a first-time candidate, but thanks to ham-handed treatment by Newsom’s Secretary of State who clumsily tried to keep Elder off the ballot, Larry—known to radio fans as “The Sage From South Central”—sued the State of California and won… garnering millions of dollars in free media in the process. It wasn’t lost on many observers that Democrats—who so freely and reflexively parrot the phony mantra of the GOP trying to restrict votes in “communities of color”—had absolutely no qualms about trying to sandbag a legitimate African American candidate who just may become California’s first black governor.
And this week, an Inside California Politics/Emerson College poll showed Larry Elder leading all candidates on the ballot if Newsom is recalled. (It is a two-step process: ballot question #1 asks if Gavin Newsom should be recalled as Governor…while question #2 asks who should replace him when voters give him the boot.)
The next seven weeks are going to be fun for political observers, and even with all his baggage, don’t count Newsom out just yet. His poll numbers were starting to rise (but that was before the Delta Variant has raised the possibility of more shutdowns, angering Californians even more than their disgracefully-high gas prices at the pump.) Newsom is also parachuting into communities (“of color” and otherwise) to dole out grants and funding to everyone he meets…a Chicago-style ward healing that may swing votes his way. And the unions—surprise—are opening their treasuries to try and maintain Democrat control in the Governor’s Mansion.
But this time—recall or not—Californians in September don’t have to just choose between a party hack like Newsom or bland GOP moderates and also-rans. They will finally have a chance to vote for a dynamic, powerful communicator whose life story and career success are the stuff of dreams for millions of Golden State residents. Men and women fed up with the “lesser of two evils” can elect a black conservative who will truly shake things up as they help make history by transforming Larry Elder into “The Sage From Sacramento” to—wait for it—finally make California Great Again.
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