Governor Gavin Newsom is quite put out that he’s even being recalled in the first place, as we learned when the measure collected enough signatures to reach the ballot.

The question now is, will California actually vote to recall him? Just how much anger against Newsom is out there? If a recent poll from last week is to be believed, the recall has an uphill battle to fight.

Signatures are still being verified before a special recall election can land on the ballot, but if it were held today, 56% of likely voters would vote against removing Newsom from office and 40% — overwhelmingly Republicans — would vote to oust him, according to the Public Policy Institute of California poll released Tuesday.”

“People who will vote no on the recall are saying he’s doing the best he can and he had no federal leadership for the first year or so, so you can’t hold him totally responsible for the pandemic response,” said Barbara O’Connor, director emeritus of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University, Sacramento. “Yes, he made mistakes, and going to the French Laundry was stupid, but should I vote to recall him? No.”

The bottom line is that California, at least at the state level, is starting to feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel. And that means if the anger against Newsom isn’t strong enough to drive turnout, whenever the recall election is scheduled, it will fail. And Newsom richly deserves the boot for more than just the French Laundry incident. However, because Newsom signed his own aid package that gave people checks, and California is going to be handed gobs of federal money in the so-called “COVID” bailout, the Democrats in state government are going to be rolling in the dough and making sure all their supporters get the tax dollars that will keep them fat and happy.

Both the state and federal coronavirus relief packages appear to be popular among a strong majority of Californians. More than 70% of Californians support the $1.6 billion coronavirus aid package signed by Newsom, the poll found, as well as the federal government’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. Democrats make up the majority of support, however, with fewer than 40% of Republicans supporting either relief package.”

The reality on the ground is that even with that initiall groundswell of anger against Newsom, it is going to take a lot of work to actually push through a recall. And so many of California’s other problems cannot be directly laid at Newsom’s feet – crime comes to mind – even though they are offshoots of policies that he supports.

The truth is that many California residents have struggled tremendously throughout the state’s lockdown.

William Hernandez has been working with the Valley Food Bank in Pacoima, Calif., for 17 years and has rarely seen such high demand.”

From serving $300,000 worth of groceries each year to area families in need more than 15 years ago, the donation-based food bank in suburban Los Angeles now handles upwards of $1.5 million per month. The center has had to adjust its operations to limit volunteers and contacts while going from feeding, on average, around 3,900 families to 10,000 families per month.”

“It’s a challenge,” Hernandez, who is the director of the enterprise said, but emphasized in an interview with The Federalist while providing a tour of the facility they’ve been able to manage through generous donations, which have reinforced his faith in public charity. “People want to help.”

And businesses are packing up and leaving, because the state has become so business-unfriendly, even without the lockdown.

And with the lockdown, the benefits of living in California pretty much disappeared.

But will the people of California remember all of this when they are staring at a ballot asking them if they should recall Gavin Newsom? Rest assured that Newsom will launch a full-court press to keep his job, because if he is recalled, he will be dependent on a future Democrat administration to give him a job beyond his home state. A successful recall would be a death knell for his political career in California, and Newsom has aspirations far beyond Sacramento.

Newsom will do everything he can to stay in office. The recall movement has quite the job cut out for them to convince deep blue California otherwise.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click