With California’s gubernatorial recall election fast approaching, Gov. Gavin Newsom learned last week that his name will appear on the ballot without his Democratic party designation.
The governor had sued Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber to have "Democrat" alongside his name on the recall ballot after it wasn’t included on his initial paperwork. Weber had declined to do so without a court order because it was past the statutory deadline.
In his ruling against the governor’s petition, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James P. Arguelles wrote, “Indeed, counsel do not cite, nor is this court aware of, any precedent extending the substantial compliance doctrine to an unambiguous election deadline. Moreover, it is worth repeating that Section 11320(c) not only imposes a deadline but commands that a statement of party preference ‘shall not appear on the ballot’ if the officer fails to submit the statement by the time the answer is due. Insofar as Governor Newsom asks the court to ignore this unambiguous language and review his designation for substantial compliance, the request is denied.”
John J. Pitney, Jr., a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, told the Northern California Record that the decision was not really unexpected.
“The law was pretty clear; Newsom’s staff made a mistake, and the judge decided that the law didn’t allow for a mulligan, so it’s not terribly surprising,” Pitney said. “It’s not going to have a huge impact, but if the recall ends up being very, very close, anything that moves a few thousand votes could end up being decisive.
“Right now, it doesn’t look as if it’s going to be close, but a lot can happen in the next two months.”
Whether Newsom will file an appeal is not known.
“Newsom’s supporters reckoned that California is primarily a Democratic state, and that the letter ‘D’ is a much better asset than the letter ‘R’,” Pitney said. “But people who vote in the recall election almost by definition have some familiarity with Gavin Newsom; if you don’t know anything about Gavin Newsom, you’re probably not going to take part in voting to begin with. And for most of those folks, they at least know he’s a Democrat; they may not have a deep knowledge of his record, but at least they know that.”
“And so, it’s a little thing that – in an extremely close election, little things can be the big things.”
Pitney noted that candidate Caityn Jenner sought to capitalize on the issue. “But it’s hard to see how that is going to propel her.”
“The question outstanding is what happens between now and when the first ballots are cast,” Pitney said. “Are we going to have wildfires, are we going to have some kind disaster, is there going to be some unexpected scandal that changes the political landscape? These are the unknown unknowns.”
The recall election is scheduled to be held on Sept. 14.