Newsom’s Recall Ad Campaign Is Weak…And Blames The Wrong People

Californians everywhere have been requesting the recall of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for quite some time now and he’s firing back with a series of multi-million dollar ad campaigns that are blaming only “right-wing Republicans” for the recall election. He launched a series of major broadcast TV and digital ad campaign to fight his recall efforts and keep his political seat in office.

Gov. Newsom started the “Campaign to Stop the Republican Recall” in a three-part commercial series, including one in Spanish that charged “Trump Republicans” and right-wing Republicans” as the ones to blame for the recall.

One of the announcements claimed that Gavin Newsom has “California roaring back” and is “delivering money straight to your pocket.” They talked about the funds being allocated to small businesses, cleaning our streets, getting homeless Californians into housing, and free pre-k for every child, regardless of income. The ad campaign said that the “Trump Republicans” trying to recall Gov. Newsom were the same ones who “refused to accept the presidential elections” and tried to “pass voter suppression laws across the country.”

Some of the Republican gubernatorial candidates have already started their own statewide ad campaigns, including 2018 gubernatorial nominee John Cox and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. The other two major GOP candidates – former Rep. Doug Ose and Caitlyn Jenner – have not launched paid ad campaigns. Even though Republicans have not won a statewide election since the 2006 reelection victory by then-Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, they believe that the recall election is their best chance.

The recall effort was fueled by the state’s harsh COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and houses of worship, prolonged school shutdowns, and high tax rates. There was bipartisan support that the government mishandled the state’s response to the pandemic, including a dinner party he’d attended last year at the state’s most expensive restaurant The French Laundry. At the time, he’d skirted his own rules and recommendations regarding the spread of COVID-19 to dine maskless with twelve other people.

The recall efforts haven’t been triggered by one particular party or race, even though Newsom would like to point the finger at “Trump supporters.”

According to a Probolsky Research poll, about 44.5% of Latino voters said they would vote Newsom be recalled from office, while 41% said they would vote no. The majority of Latino voters in California (58%) are Democrats, compared to 16% who are Republican. About 20% of Latino voters stated that they were independent.

Adam Probolsky, president of the opinion research firm, said that the poll speaks to the current state of affairs of Latinos being “disproportionately impacted health-wise and economically by the pandemic.”

Linda Martinez-Hanna, a health care aide who signed the recall petition, said she didn’t identify as Democrat or Republican, but conservative. She said she’d signed the petition because of the business closures across California during the pandemic and the amount she was paying in state taxes. “I wasn’t happy with Newsom. He wants to control what we’re doing,” she said.

People are starting to see how Newsom’s draconian shutdown policies have affected the state and are leaving California by the busloads, just like New York. There’s a level of incompetency that Democratic leaders achieved during the pandemic…and it’s time they get out of office because of it.