Editorial: Vote No on Gavin Newsom’s Recall

In perhaps the most anti-immigrant and anti-Latino attack since Proposition 187, Latinos should vote No on this Recall

The September 14th recall election is a direct assault against immigrants and Latinos in California. Those supporting the recall are explicitly anti-immigrant and attack Governor Newsom for having supported key policies that have provided necessary resources to vulnerable immigrant and Latino families. It is a dangerous gimmick designed specifically to silence our community.

Some may forget that only little more than 20 years ago under a Republican administration we lived through an anti-immigrant sentiment that set the foundation for the rise of Trump and mobilized our community like never before. This is why our newsroom is sounding the alarm on how this dangerous election may dial back years of progress for our communities and why Latinos should reject the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In their petition, recall leaders stated their reason for removal was that Governor Newsom has endorsed laws favoring immigrants “over that of our own citizens.” We’ve heard this rhetoric before. We don’t want to return to the anti-immigrant nightmares we saw in the ‘90s.

The campaign to recall Newsom would seem like a sham were it not a serious undemocratic attempt to subvert our government and install a representative of a shrinking minority into power.

With voting already underway, the matter is very urgent.

Ballots for the election have been sent out to more than 22 million Californians.

Recall leaders are counting on us to stay home and skip the vote. That’s how they win. And if they succeed, we will see Latino progress erode in one of the nation’s most diverse states.

That includes progress we’ve made under Newsom, like expanded healthcare for our undocumented children and abuelos. Doubling tax credits to provide more cash to low-income families with children. Capped rent increases. Rent relief. Barred evictions due to nonpayment. Funded language services and internet expansion.

The ballot is set up in two basic steps. First, the voter is asked if they favor the removal, to which we say a categorical no.

There’s an exhausting list of 47 candidates seeking to replace Governor Newsom, almost all of them Republicans. They are either unknown, dangerous, or both. And Latinos have seen too much of what dangerous Republicans can do when they take power. We can’t go back.

If more than 50% of voters say yes to removal, one of them would become the governor of California. There’d be no runoff. The candidate wouldn’t even need a majority of votes to preside over the most populous state in the country.

They wouldn’t reflect Californian values. Rather, they’d represent a bombastic and increasingly extremist minority.

Among the mostly unknown candidates, there’s politicians funding themselves and those who stand out for their mediocrity.

There’s longtime candidate John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018 and has put up tens of millions of his own money. He shows up at rallies with a bear and a garbage can.

Also running is Caitlyn Jenner, the “television personality” and Kardashian relative who had supported Trump even after his racist rants against immigrants.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is running and has been shifting his position to win over Trump’s “base.”

Frighteningly, who’s the worst of all is also topping the polls: radio host Larry Elder. He is a lifelong apologist for Trump who wants to completely ax the minimum wage, considers climate change fiction, denies the deadly dangers of tobacco, considers abortion murder, promises to lay off 15,000 teachers, opposes equality for women and rejects mask use and vaccines that prevent the spread of COVID-19, all positions generally shared by the rest of the candidates and contrary to the general public.

The candidates blame Gavin Newsom for all of California’s ills, both real and fictitious. In their electoral propaganda they draw a false image of a collapsed state awash in crime and left abandoned by residents and businesses.

To be sure, Newsom has made mistakes. And one of those errors is being exploited by his opponents to distort his image.

At a festive event, he was seen in a fancy restaurant, with 10 people, without a mask and without social distancing.

His error warrants fair criticism. It doesn’t warrant removal.

The idea of ​​the “recall” or impeachment vote has existed since the beginning of his journey. Its leaders were just waiting for the best opportunity. Then, COVID-19 fell like manna from heaven.

This is an election called exclusively for the recall process. There is no other voting issue on the ballot, nothing that could attract more voters. The recall initiators’ best ally is apathy. They fervently want Latino communities to stay at home and not vote in this process.

Surveys encourage them. Polls show very close to 50% of likely voters might just drive Newsom out of power—and with him with all the progress we’ve made.

Too much is at stake for our environment, families, students, immigrants, and renters. Defending them requires us to vote no and against removal. Answering the second question is optional and we do not consider it necessary. Because the opposition to the dismissal must be forceful, with one voice.