8/17/2021- 12:30 p.m.
California – In 28 days, California voters will decide whether to recall Gavin Newsom.
And the governor is getting nervous.”Democrats up and down the state haven’t taken this seriously, whereas Republicans have,” Newsom told the Washington Post recently.
“Republicans see this as a historic opportunity.”He’s right. And there’s new polling out to prove the point.
An initial glance at new CBS polling numbers seems to suggest decent news for Newsom, with majority of registered voters (54%) saying they don’t think he should be recalled and 46% saying he should.
Consider this from the CBS writeup of the poll:
“Even looking at it by 2020 presidential vote, those who voted for former President Donald Trump are more apt to say they’re ‘very motivated’ to vote in this recall — by almost 20 points — than are those who backed President Biden.”
It’s possible, of course, that the increased urgency — and the polling that shows Newsom could well be recalled — shakes Democrats out of their summer stupor.
Democrats — even those who would consider themselves part of the activist base of the party — have not been heavily focused on the recall at least in part because the expectation was that Newsom, who still has generally positive job approval numbers, wasn’t in any real danger.
That sort of energy disparity between the two party bases is a very big deal — especially when you consider that this recall election is on a date that isn’t a typical voting one for California, and in an off-year to boot.
What makes Democrats’ position even more tenuous is that they purposely did not offer up any other prominent candidate for voters to choose if Newsom is recalled.
(The ballot will have two parts. The first is whether Newsom should be recalled; the second is a a very long list of candidates who are running to replace him.)
