New litigation challenging the gubernatorial recall as unconstitutional is raising questions about why it was filed weeks before the election.
Since the election has been duly called by the Secretary of State, it comes across as a partisan political move, Lance Christensen, chief operations officer at the California Policy Center, told the Northern California Record.
“I've been in California policy and politics since the first recall in 2003, and it looks to me like a clearly partisan political play – I don't know how anybody can look at a lawsuit to declare a duly declared recall election unconstitutional,” Christensen said. “I would think that it's too much for those that are in elected position to make this kind of statement, because it would have them in the position of trying to illegitimatize free, fair, and open elections, and that's a bad look.”
After Democratic State Senator Josh Newman was recalled in 2018, more recall requirements were signed into law, Christensen said. SB 151 concerned party affiliation on the ballot, which Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team failed to do, leading to another lawsuit earlier this summer.
“They created a whole bunch of rules that they thought would help them in future recall elections,” Christensen said. “And the irony is much of that changed a lot again this last year, because they realize the longer they delayed, the worse the problems of California would get, and the worse his prospects would get,” Christensen said. “And frankly, anybody in Northern California can step outside and just realize that we have the [second] largest forest fire in California state history continuing to burn.”
The Dixie Fire, which started July 13 and has burned more than 700,000 acres, was 38 percent contained over the weekend, Capital Public Radio reported.
“So when the governor talks about water and the drought it's pretty precarious, especially for those in who live and work in ag country,” Christensen said. “You look at the homelessness and the crime and schools, the situation with the pandemic and possibly lockdowns, the longer and longer it goes, the worse and worse it gets for Governor Newsom.”
Recent polls have shown the race tightening in the lead up to the election.
It was not clear if a court date had been scheduled for the lawsuit.
“I don't know that a judge is going to say oh we're not going to have an election, because all of a sudden after 100 years of having the recall in California, it’s found to be unconstitutional,” Christensen said. “The Democrats would have to help everybody understand why they are trying to undermine a duly called election.”