Ordering in for dinner is always less expensive than going out and that is proving to be the case for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s costly decision to join an outdoor Napa County private dinner party.
Newsom apologized for his judgment but the window has been open to step up recall attempts. Conservative activists’ efforts were reinvigorated last week when a judge granted a 120-day extension to collect recall signatures because of coronavirus limitations.
Newsom has not talked to reporters in the week since his apology that followed the San Francisco Chronicle revealing his attendance at the exclusive affair for friend and political activist Jason Kinney. The Democratic governor also received criticism for sending his kids to in-person private school, where another student tested positive for COVID-19.
California Republicans also led a 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis, who was replaced in an election by Arnold Schwarzenegger. RescueCalifornia.org chair Tom Del Beccaro, a former California Republican Party chair, called the Sacramento Superior Court ruling a “game-changer.”
“It makes all the difference in the world for us,” Del Beccaro told Politico. “So now we have an extended life, and we’re not competing with the (presidential) election anymore.” The previous recall had a $1.7 million donor and a movie star campaigning on “The Tonight Show.”
“I would not laugh it off,” Schwarzenegger communications director and Republican strategist Rob Stutzman told Politico. “(Business owners) could be feeling pretty emboldened. … They could say, ‘Recall? Yeah, I’ll sign that.’”
Organizers need 1.5 million validated signatures, a tough threshold when everyone but Newsom is at home.
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