Three Prominent Republicans Throw Their Hats in the Ring Against Gavin Newsom
Former Republican congressman Doug Ose announced Tuesday he’s entering the recall election aimed at ousting California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a day after the Democratic governor began raising money to defend his seat.
Ose becomes the third established Republican to enter the emerging contest, joining former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox, who was defeated by Newsom in a landslide in 2018.
It’s possible they could eventually be among dozens of candidates. There were 135 on the ballot in the state’s 2003 recall election that removed former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from office and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The former congressman said he was ready to work across party lines to reopen schools and businesses in a state upended by coronavirus restrictions, while taking on the longstanding homelessness crisis.
“Californians are tired of having a governor whose operating themes are hypocrisy, self-interest, half truths and mediocrity,” Ose, 65, said in a statement announcing his candidacy.
“Newsom sides with unions that close our schools while sending his own kids to private school. He dines in the state’s fanciest restaurants while telling everyone else to stay at home. He lives in a gated mansion while allowing the state’s homeless crisis to spin out of control. Enough is enough,” said Ose, who served in Congress from 1999 to January 2005.
On Monday, Newsom launched his campaign with an attack on the recall organizers, describing them as political extremists and “violent white supremacists.”
Recall organizers said Newsom was attempting to smear an effort that has gathered over 2 million petition signatures statewide to place the proposal on the ballot this year.
About 1.5 million signatures are needed for the recall to qualify for the ballot, though hundreds of thousands must still be validated by election officials. The deadline for submitting signatures was Wednesday.
In an interview last month, Ose said voters are clamoring for new leadership after Newsom’s wobbly COVID-19 vaccine rollout and strict coronavirus rules that have shuttered businesses, public schools and churches.
Ose, a businessman from the Sacramento region, said he will run in the recall if it qualifies or, if it doesn’t, challenge Newsom when he is expected to seek a second term in 2022.
Ose, a political moderate, briefly ran for governor in 2018 before dropping out of the race, citing a lack of funding.
In interviews on Tuesday, the governor kept up his criticism of leaders of the recall effort, telling CNN “we are taking it very seriously.”
Newsom also defended his response to the pandemic, saying his decision to issue the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order saved “thousands and thousands” of lives.
He’s also been forced to defend his decision to attend a birthday party with friends and lobbyists at an opulent San Francisco restaurant while telling residents to stay home.
In a Tuesday appearance on “The View” he said attending the dinner was a one-off mistake.
“Of course it was a mistake, and I didn’t shy away from that and never made one prior in that respect and since,” Newsom said.
The Sacramento Bee reported that a new policy will ban Jason Kinney, the lobbyist whose birthday was being celebrated at the restaurant, from lobbying the governor or his administration.
Newsom has picked up support from national Democrats to defeat the campaign against him, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
So far, no prominent Democrat has entered the recall election.
California is one of the most heavily Democratic states in the nation, with Democratic voters outnumbering Republicans 2 to 1.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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