Why the California recall might not be bad news for Gavin Newsom
CNN
Over the weekend, we got our clearest picture to date of what the September 14 recall election for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will look like. There will be 41 candidates on the ballot -- a far cry from the 100+ who appeared on the recall ballot in 2003 -- with Republicans accounting for 21 of the slots.
What's remarkable is that the recall may never even get to the point where any of those 41 will get votes. It's a two-step process: Voters are first asked whether Newsom should be recalled and then, if a majority say "yes," they vote for who they want to replace him. With so much happening in California -- and so much uncertainty around what will happen in September, -- I reached out to Mark Z. Barabak (just plain "Z" to those of us who know him) for his take on Newsom, the recall and the state more generally. (Sidebar: No one knows California politics better than Z; you can email him at mark.barabak@latimes.com and he'll send his column to you whenever it comes out. Which is a pretty great deal!)More Related News