Republicans have been granted a rare opportunity to bolster their anemic numbers in the California statehouse, as a recall election for Dem. Josh Newman has been announced for June 5th.
State Senator Newman holds a seat in a heavily Republican district, and will most likely lose election to a Republican. With the prospect of adding another senator to their anemic representation in the California statehouse, Republicans hope to combat the bloated budgets and criminal-level taxation pushed by governor Jerry Brown and his Democrats.
However, Democrats – unsurprisingly – are unfair fighters, and have tipped the scales in their favor. Governor Brown set the same date for the Recall as the regular state primary election, saying that it would ease the voters who would be casting votes for the governor and the senator. As per the critics, he took the step in efforts aiming to help the fellow Democrats, as the primary elections may result in higher voter turnout for the Democrats.
DeMaio and several of the other Republicans had blamed Newman for casting the deciding April 6 vote in the favor of a $52 billion transportation package, which would have included an increase in the gas taxes and the car registration fees.
“Great news, with your help, the Gas Tax Repeal Campaign is thrilled to announce that Gov. Jerry Brown has been forced to call the recall election against State Senator Josh Newman—the politician we targeted for removal from office after he cast the deciding vote in the gas and car tax hikes!” DeMaio went on to email his supporters on Tuesday.
A campaign spokesperson for the Newman – Derek Humphrey said, “a waste of taxpayer dollars no matter when they schedule it. This recall effort is another example of the same misguided politics-as-usual that people are tired of. It was sold as a repeal of the gas tax and it will do no such thing. We feel confident that the voters in California’s 29th Senate District will see through this charade and vote no on the recall.”
The campaign against Newman needed at least 63,592 signatures so that a recalled could be voted for the Democratic-controlled government. Whereas, the Newman camp went forth to challenge the authenticity of the total signatures, which were later considered enough to legalize the voting procedure.
The GOP campaign against Newman had to collect at least 63,592 signatures to force the Democratic-controlled government to hold a recall. The Newman camp had challenged the validity of thousands of the signatures, but the Secretary of State’s office determined enough were legitimate to launch the recall.
The recall campaign is only just the beginning of a much broader step to push and repeal the gas tax increase. Repealing a complete law, however, takes a much higher limit than calling for a recall campaign.
DeMaio’s team, hence, needs 585407 signatories before March from the registered voters. In an appeal to the people of California, he said, “Please do what you can! Let’s keep forcing Gov. Jerry Brown to do the things he hates to do – like calling the election that will finally repeal his costly gas-tax hikes.”
The announcement was made when two of Republican members of the House of Representatives (federal government) announced their retirement from public office. Representatives, Ed Royce and Darrel Issa announced retirements, concerned that they could not again win in 2018, when their districts so heavily went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.