It’s gonna come down to turnout in a gubernatorial special election during a pandemic and fire season. I’m sorry if I’ve lathed Trump Jr’s appointment as Feinstein’s replacement into existence

  • DetroitLolcat [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    If Democrats seriously blow this election, Dianne Feinstein verbs, and Democrats lose their majority that way it would be one of the most insane self-owns I've ever seen.

    Democrats could prevent this literally by removing the governor's power to appoint Senators (you can just do that!), but they won't because they're big stupid idiots who don't think they can lose this election.

    • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Democrats could prevent this literally by removing the governor’s power to appoint Senators (you can just do that!), but they won’t because they’re big stupid idiots who don’t think they can lose this election.

      Is this really true?

      because it shifts the narrative from "dems are purposefully ignorant" to "dems are actually just idiot cucks"

      • DetroitLolcat [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yup, it is. Kentucky did it this year after a Democrat won the governorship. They changed the rule so that the replacement Senator has to be pre-approved by the outgoing Senator’s party. This was in case Mitch McConnell retired early or died in office. California could do the same thing!

        https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/kentucky-republicans-change-rules-could-140201302.html

      • Wertheimer [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Sadly no. (This was surprisingly difficult to Google.)

        if a vacancy occurs in an office after a recall petition is filed against the vacating officer, the recall election shall nevertheless proceed.

        The resignation would have had to happen while they were still gathering signatures.

        https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC&sectionNum=11302

    • Ryan_Holman [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      If Newsom did lose, I bet that the Democrats would remove some responsibilities from the Governor.

        • Ryan_Holman [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Again, I disagree.

          If some MAGA person gets into office, a lot of these resistance liberals could score easy political points amongst their base by removing some responsibilities from the Governor.

          I could be proven wrong. If that happens, then that shows why Democrats constantly lose.

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I believe Democrats have a supermajority in the state legislature, the CA recall process is notoriously bad so I don't know why they haven't bothered to try and change it. Probably because they think "oh then Republicans will say we're trying to cheat even though by any measure our recall process is a joke!"

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        You can't just do politics to win. People will think you're just like the Republicans.

  • OldSoulHippie [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    It's gonna be real weird when more conservative people take the lib advice and :vote: while the libs are at brunch.

    I'll bet they think they have this one in the bag.. just like 2016. Will they finally realize that electoralism is a fuck?

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        And yet Larry Elder is now the GOP's front-runner.

        If Bernie Sanders could win the Dem Primary, there should be some kind of constituency to put put a Succ in Sacramento.

    • Ryan_Holman [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This is what gets me about some of these "anti-establishment" types, there are several who live in California and they go on about how terrible the establishment is. Yet when they have the chance to potentially catch the establishment with their proverbial pants down, they don't try anything.

    • Lucas [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      It was funny for a little bit with Arnold Schwarzeremoved, but meh. I wanna see Newsom eat shit, but I don't want one of those other ghouls in charge. I hope Newsom would just resign and circumvent this whole thing. Maybe start a trend of fuckups stepping for mishandling covid.

      Edit - Oh, that's good that the censor picks up variations that could skirt the n-word.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Arnold wasn't significantly worse than any statewide Democrat you could name. But he was a Hollyweird guy with a Kennedy wife who wasn't invested in anything more Republican than low taxes. Pretty much the textbook definition of a RINO. That's how he survived a full two-terms.

        Whatever fuckwit Republican can actually win out of the current GOP crop is going to be a statewide trainwreck the day after he's sworn in. 2022 would be an absolute shitshow for the state.

  • VernetheJules [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    "Forty-six candidates are in the running, and it just takes a simple plurality to win"

    sane electoral process. If he was allowed to run in his own recall election, he'd probably win.

    Also I would like to remind folks CA passed rent forgiveness for tenants affected by covid and made school lunches free for all kids in the state. Newsom might be a chump, but I highly doubt we'd have either of those things with a republican.

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Yes, as a CA resident I'm definitely feeling conflicted over this. On one hand, I'm definitely done with electoralism and have committed myself to not really worrying about voting unless it's for like a PSL candidate and for/against individual propositions that are good/bad. I didn't vote for Biden because I thought the harm reduction argument for him was bullshit. Buuuut when it comes to Newsom versus wacky reactionary GOP candidate... the harm reduction argument becomes a bit trickier. Newsom is a lib but it's an Amber-brained take to say he has done no good at all and is exactly as bad as a reactionary.

      The tiebreaker for me will probably be the fact the California reactionaries are absolutely insufferable in a way that chuds back in the Midwest are not. If they get Newsom recalled they will be gloating about it for ages. Meanwhile if he's not recalled it's not like libs are gonna be overjoyed either.

  • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Silver lining: If Larry Elder wins we can watch Chris James prank call the sitting governor of California every Sunday

  • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Dems losing their majority in the Senate because of a California governor's recall election would be absolutely :chefs-kiss: