California Gov. Gavin Newsom
Gavin NewsomNewsom Denounces ‘Political Power Seizing’ Amid Recall California White House Chief of Staff: Young a ‘Very Serious Candidate’ for OMB Director Sanders Urges Support for Newsom Amid Recall MORE (D) on Tuesday during his State of the State address defended his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, targeting critics amid a growing recall to remove him from office.
‘I remain determined. And I just want you to know, we’re not going to change course just because of a few naysayers and ominers, ”said Newsom. So the California critics who promote partisan political power grab with outdated prejudices and reject everything that makes California really great, we’re saying this, we’re not going to be distracted from getting guns and our economy thriving again. This is a struggle for California’s future. ”
The rebuke comes because the recall appears to be on track to garner enough signatures to force a special election that could jeopardize Newsom’s political future.
The organizers of the effort said on Sunday they have collected 1.95 million signatures in support of the recall, more than a week before the March 17 deadline. Only 1.5 million signatures are required, but hundreds of thousands more are expected to be submitted with some expected to be invalidated.
That’s more than enough to make this initiative eligible for a special election later this year to finally let the people decide … what will happen to the fate and future of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Randy Economy, a political advisor who is working on the effort, said Sunday.
The recall was fueled by boiling frustration among Republicans over Newsom’s restrictions, especially those against rallies and corporate closures. The buzz surrounding the recall became even louder in November when the governor was seen wearing a mask in a posh restaurant celebrating the birthday of a political adviser in violation of his government’s guidelines.
But it remains unclear whether Newsom is at serious risk of being impeached if special elections are held. It’s hard to overthrow a governor in a recall election; 2003 was the last year that a governor was established in the state. Since then, California has only gone bluer, with registered Democrats outpacing registered Republicans by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.
Newsom nodded briefly to the criticism he has endured, saying he would learn from the mistakes he made during the pandemic.
“I know our progress has not always been felt fast enough. And see, we’ve made mistakes, I’ve made mistakes, but we own them, we learn from them, and we never stop trying, ”he said.
The governor spent most of his prime time address defending his response to the coronavirus, requesting, among other things, an order to stay at home – the same kind of move that prompted Republicans to recall him.
“We were the first state, the first state to issue a stay-at-home state, which helped us avoid the early spikes in cases. The top performers of our country’s leading research institutions and live science companies immediately jumped into the development of breakthrough treatments and vaccines. And while others competed to buy personal protective equipment at exorbitant prices, we quickly built our own pipeline that supplies critical equipment to millions upon millions of essential workers, ”he said.
The governor also underscored California’s vaccination efforts to see the pandemic as its end, noting that 11 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine have been administered. Newsom also saw the number of daily cases drop from 53,000 at the state’s peak to just over 3,800 on Sunday and an 80 percent drop in hospital admissions.
“The building blocks of our recovery are really there, and now we are at the forefront of this pandemic because we listened to the experts and let the evidence guide us. Today the light at the end of this tunnel is brighter than ever, ”he said.