I have not been a big fan of the recall election. I am friends with the people who are behind it, so I do not think they are doing a bad job. I think to win the first vote, the actual recall to move on to the second vote and determine Newsom’s replacement is a much higher hurdle than in 2003.
The main part of ousting Newsom successfully is the necessity of an attractive alternative to replace him. You cannot defeat someone without an attractive alternative. We now have that candidate once Larry Elder was cleared to be on the ballot. I now believe the recall can win.
When I heard Larry was running (we have been friends for 25 years and I am very fond of him), my initial reaction was what in God’s name is he thinking? He has become a nationally syndicated radio host, earns speaking fees, appears on national news shows, writes books and made a movie (the excellent Uncle Tom if you are not familiar). Many people would characterize Larry as a superstar.
That is why Dennis Prager has a standard offer regarding Larry. Prager will personally make a $10,000 donation to the charity of a person’s choice for any black leader in the country on the Left (woke) willing to debate Larry. We all know Larry would bury whomever that is which is likely why no one has ever taken up the offer.
Larry electrifies the field. There are capable people running in the recall. Kevin Faulconer has solid experience and John Cox is an attractive candidate — not to mention a couple others. But none of them is going to get people to turn out and say yes, this guy is really going to change things.
There is a reason Arnold won in 2003. He was not your typical politician. He had an allure of change. None of the other candidates in today’s field offer that.
Yes, Arnold turned out to be a bust. He thought he was going to set up a tent on the roof of the Capitol, sit down with his opponents, smoke some cigars and charm them because he was the Terminator. They sat down with him and shared cigars, but then went back to their offices and stuck pins in their Arnold voodoo dolls.
Larry is much smarter than that and actually understands the issues. He understands the issues better than any of his opponents. He has been analyzing them, writing about them and talking about them for his whole life. After all he is the “Sage of South Central.” Larry will be able to go directly to the public and get them to understand how the Legislature is not beholden to the people of the state. The Legislature serves the needs of the public employee unions. That needs to be turned on its head and if anyone can do it, Larry can do that.
Take one issue. I have written about this numerous times. We have another drought. We have spent billions of dollars on water projects. We have gotten nothing. We have 840 miles coastline. That coastline should be lined with desalination plants. Without water we are killing our biggest industry – agriculture. Our leaders do nothing. In the meantime, Dubai and Israel have desalination plants while they are in deserts, and they are awash with water.
Newsom’s solution is to tell us to cut back our water usage another 15%. He is so out of touch with Californians. Almost every Californian has already adopted a water savings lifestyle. Where does Newsom think we can cut back more? My showers are already so short my only solution would be to skip a day every week. Not a pleasant experience for the people around me.
Larry will have a bully pulpit and he will use it effectively. The Legislature has elections 14 months after the recall, and they will find it rather unpleasant to have Larry beating them over their heads with their failings.
With Larry as Governor, we might get something done for the people of the state instead of the embedded power interests. Newsom was raised and supported by all those power interests, and he serves for their pleasure.
That is why they tried to keep Larry off the ballot. A black man with superior verbal skills, a likeable personality and a sense of humor with understanding of the issues who came from meager beginnings and raised himself to his position in life. They know how dangerous he is to their rigged games. Instead, what these fools did was give him millions of dollars of free publicity and get everyone to realize he must be offering something if they are pulling these shenanigans.
That is what brought me to believe Larry has an excellent shot to pull this off. If he does and comes out on the other side, just watch what happens.
Lastly, they cannot call him what they call every Republican today – a racist. They will call him an Uncle Tom. Let’s make them call him Governor.