The California recall vote to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and replace him with a Donald Trump clone became an exercise in futility on Tuesday night when CNN projected that the GOP lost and Newsom would retain his job as the governor.
Politics
Initially, the California recall vote was expected to be a tight race, with many predicting a strong possibility that Newsom would be replaced. However, the decision (by Trump) to pit controversial conservative talk radio host Larry Elder against the governor sealed the deal and effectively allowed Newsom to remain in power. Or, in other words, chalk up another loss for ‘The Donald.’
As of Monday, 9 million ballots had been cast, including 8.7 million by mail. Early ballots showed the election breaking (as expected) in favor of Democratic Gov. Newsom. Additionally, a Berkeley IGS poll released Friday showed the governor leading 60.1% to 38.5% among likely voters. However, by Tuesday night, the question to recall Newsom ended with 63.9% of California voters choosing to keep Newsom in office.
Now, despite Elder being a deeply flawed candidate, Republicans are crying foul and are using the same ploy from their 2020 presidential election manual in claiming that the California recall vote was rigged.
Interestingly, the GOP saw the writing on the wall months ago and recognized that Elder would be a losing candidate. So, they joined Trump in launching a propaganda campaign on right-wing news sites and social media channels claiming the election would be “stolen” and would involve such improprieties as deceptively designed ballots and nefarious acts by corrupt postal workers.
As far back as July, Fox News commentators Tomi Lahren and Tucker Carlson argued that wrongdoing was the only way Gov. Newsom could win, while Donald Trump barked that he was convinced the whole thing would be nothing but “a rigged election.”
“This is baked into the [GOP] playbook now,” said Michael Latner, an associate professor of political science at California Polytechnic Institute. “You already started to see stories and individuals on social media claiming that, you know, they received five ballots or their uncle received five ballots,” he added.
The notion that every lost election must have been rigged and not lost fair and square is an old Donald Trump trick. However, some Republican leaders and strategists across the country are beginning to worry it’s a losing strategy that is being overused.
Although these charges successfully rile up the base, GOP leaders fear that repeatedly telling voters the election is rigged and that their votes will not count has a suppressive effect that causes some Republicans to not vote at all.
“The person that they most admired in their conservative beliefs was telling them that their vote didn’t count,” Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan of Georgia said in reference to Donald Trump. “And then the next day he would tell him that the election was rigged, and then the next day he would tell them, ‘Why even show up?’ And they didn’t. And that alone was enough to swing the election to the Democrat side.
“This whole notion about fraud and elections,” Mr. Duncan continued, “it’s a shiny object that quite honestly is about trying to save face and not own reality.”
If Lt. Gov. Duncan is correct, the California recall election was already a lost cause for Republicans before it even began.
.
“In Elder, Newsom gained a direct target who he could argue was “to the right of Donald Trump” and who would take California ‘off the Covid cliff,’ citing the experiences of Florida and Texas and their conservative anti-mask-mandate governors as the model Elder would follow in responding to the pandemic. Elder’s long history on the radio and as a columnist provided reams of controversial statements for opposition researchers and journalists to scrutinize on other topics, like his disparaging comments about women — a key demographic for Newsom.” – CNN
Donald Trump’s push to launch claims of fraud and broadcast that the election was “rigged” before a single vote had been cast (just as he did in his own election) may have worked to save face and avoid total embarrassment — but it helped to confirm Larry Elder as a losing candidate in California from the moment he announced his candidacy.
The truth is, it was indeed “a lost cause” for Repubs before it even got started. But in typical Trumpian fashion, Repubs (and their sorry-azz leader) just AREN’T intelligent enough to have known that.
HAH! They know it now.
I always felt that Newsom was going to win. My babysis and I talked about it a week ago. She was a little concerned that he might possibly lose or win by a small margin. My niece (her daughter) attends a university in San Francisco. I tried to assure my sister that he would win by a good margin….Not close at all.
But honestly, I thought his win margin would probably be by about 20%. Heck the actual win margin well exceeds that!
The voters of California have spoken.