Column: Newsom recall effort underscores California’s status as a place apart
LA TimesIf there is one thing that California produces in abundance — apart from movie stars, avocados and Silicon Valley billionaires — it’s superlatives. Today he’s scrapping for political survival, trying to avoid joining California’s Gray Davis, a fellow Democrat ousted in 2003, and North Dakota’s Lynn Frazier, a Republican removed in 1921, as the only governors ever turned out of office in a recall. That means proponents needed to collect just under 1.5 million signatures in a state with more than 22 million registered voters to force a referendum on Newsom’s fate. Other contenders include fellow Republicans Kevin Faulconer, San Diego’s former two-term mayor; John Cox, a businessman who lost to Newsom in 2016; Assemblyman Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, and former Olympic athlete and reality TV personality Caitlyn Jenner. It would also cement California’s status as a place not just more populous, more inventive and more diverse than any state in the country, but also more politically confounding.