The Bottom is Falling Out

There’s a new name in the mix for the Recall. You may remember him from his plaid ties.

At the time Donald Trump became President, Tom Steyer was already the biggest Democrat political donor in U.S. history. Nine months later, he launched a “Need to Impeach” campaign that would burn through another $75 million of his hedge fund fortune. In mid-2019, he began a vanity presidential run, spending $250 million without winning a single delegate.

This all apparently made an impression on Gavin Newsom. Last April, he tapped Steyer to lead California’s 80-member economic “recovery” commission. It turned out to be as much of a bust as Steyer's presidential campaign and Newsom quietly scrapped the whole thing in November.

Yesterday, we received a clue as to Steyer’s next act. He was caught putting out a poll on the Recall with a list of candidates that included his own name. It’s the clearest sign yet that the bottom is falling out for Newsom, as he faces competition from his own high-profile appointee. Former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is also thought to be mulling a run.

On the Republican side, the declared candidates include Doug Ose, a former Member of Congress; John Cox, the 2018 GOP nominee; Kevin Faulconer, the former Mayor of San Diego; and Major Williams, who attended our trial against Newsom.

The name that’s generating an extraordinary level of grassroots enthusiasm is Ric Grenell. Grenell, who has not announced his intentions, is also offering some bold ideas on topics like infrastructure and is receiving nightly shoutouts from the likes of Sean Hannity.

As for my own plans, I am tremendously grateful for all of your encouragement. I am still watching how the field shapes up and thinking about what role I can play to be most effective in helping our movement get across the finish line.

Meanwhile Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy, just said Newsom should resign before the Recall if polls show that "no Democrat could win," so that voters can't choose his successor. That about sums up California politics.

Join me in the fight against Newsom

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Kevin Kiley,
California Legislator,

and nothing happend

Lmk when you are ready to bet on it.

Why would they recall Newsom again? Did he act unethically?

Curious as I hadn't seen anything in the news bad about him.

he dined indoors at one of the best restaurants in the world (which is in napa valley) without a mask on and lied about it. this was when he had his administration shut down basically all indoor dining period in LA, under threat of fines and prison terms

the recall effort is a waste of time because most of his constituents endorse his behavior

This post was edited by excellence on Mar 26 2021 09:27am

He did the whole Pelosi thing, he? Sounds like a douche. Wife and I finally went out for the first date in like a year, Capital Grille is always a treat.

*The Recall Newsom book is now available for just the cost of production.

I've just published a new blog post:

Newsom's New Regressive Era

On April 1, 2020, Gavin Newsom hailed the novel coronavirus as an “opportunity” for a “new progressive era.” A year later, we are living with the nation’s worst and most regressive outcomes.

On that prior April Fools’ Day, Newsom called COVID-19 “an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern.” He said the virus was an "opportunity for reimagining a progressive era as it pertains to capitalism."

He then proceeded to create dozens of “progressive” policies by fiat: price controls, vote-by-mail, prisoner re-entry, and much more. He named Tom Steyer chair of an economic “recovery” commission to “shape a fair, green, and prosperous future.” He shut down our schools and economy, making families dependent on government checks and services he woefully failed to deliver.

In the process, he brought California’s long-term decline to a total freefall:

Before COVID, California had the nation’s worst poverty. During COIVD, we’ve had the worst lockdowns and job loss.

Before COVID, California’s schools had the worst achievement gaps. During COVID, we’ve had the worst school shutdown and learning loss.

Before COVID, 53 percent of Californians were looking to leave. During COVID, record numbers have done just that.

In a recent poll, two-thirds of Californians said kids growing up in our state today will be worse off than their parents. This is what the Recall is truly about: saving the California Dream before it’s too late.

This year, we can begin a new era that’s exactly the opposite of Newsom’s faux progressivism. A new era of sanity and decency, where public servants actually serve the public; of humility and restraint, where power is returned to the people; of opportunity and prosperity, where California starts leading the nation in the right ways.

If Newsom's historic abuses are what brings the era of corruption to an end, the April Fools’ joke will ultimately be on him.

Help me end Newsom's corrupt reign

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Kevin Kiley,
California Legislator

I've just published a new blog post:

The Vote Suppressor in Chief

Major League Baseball has pulled its All-Star game from Georgia over a new state election law, and Gavin Newsom is offering to host it in California – presumably in an empty ballpark. If the MLB is truly concerned with “voter suppression,” it would emphatically reject Newsom’s invitation.

Let’s start with a statement by Newsom last October: “Nothing reeks of desperation quite like the Republican Party organization these days – willing to lie, cheat, and threaten our democracy all for the sake of gaining power.”

What was this nefarious “threat to democracy” he was referring to? Ballot collection boxes.

The California Republican Party had made the boxes available to voters, so Newsom teamed up with Attorney General Xavier Becerra to remove them. A Sacramento court stopped this attempt at voter suppression in what the LA Times called “a significant victory for GOP officials who have insisted their ballot collection campaign is following state election law.”

Newsom also tried last year to suppress all votes for the sitting President of the United States, signing a bill to remove his name from the ballot for not releasing tax returns. The California Supreme Court quickly and unanimously struck the law down. The Chief Justice admonished “it is the voters who must decide” what information “will have consequences at the ballot box.”

Then on Election Day, many voters went to their usual polling place only to find it wasn’t there. Newsom had signed an Executive Order shutting down up to 90 percent of voting locations.

After the election, many people thought they’d get to vote for Kamala Harris’s replacement in the Senate. Newsom had other ideas, unlawfully appointing his crony Alex Padilla.

While Newsom has used COVID-19 to all but abolish the democratic process, his habit of disenfranchising voters did not begin with the virus. After pledging to “respect the will of the electorate” on a recently passed Proposition to keep the death penalty, he did the opposite right after taking office, discarding the votes of 6.6 million Californians.

Suppression has also been Newsom’s chosen weapon against the Recall. His allies candidly admitted their strategy was “all about reducing signatures” and referred to signature sheets as “poisonous petitions.” His spokesman falsely claimed the Recall was a “refusal to play by the rules.” His top surrogates held an event branding it “the California Coup,” which the LA Times said “undermined the state’s legitimate direct democracy system.”

Most jarringly, Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine, herself a top party strategist, recently revealed a plan to suppress the entire election. If Newsom is polling poorly in the Fall, she told Politico, “it may be that no Democrat could win. Then, he should step down as governor and [Lieutenant Governor] Eleni Kounalakis should be the governor, and they should cancel the election. In that case, the Democratic Party would retain the governorship.”

See my full post for more examples of Newsom shutting out the public. The point, of course, is to give the well-connected a monopoly on political power. Newsom himself became a county supervisor through the patronage of the Gettys, became Mayor of San Francisco through the patronage of PG&E, and became Governor of California through the patronage of massive unions.

But there is something powerful happening in our state. 2.1 million signatures don't appear out of thin air. This is a movement to restore government by the people, and even Newsom’s unrivaled corruption may not be able to suppress it.

Help me fight for government by the people

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Kevin Kiley,
California Legislator

General bad governance. As far as Democratic candidates, there are so many better ones than Newsom.

Kamala Harris could probably do a better job.