In June 2021, California announced that it got the required signatures to host a gubernatorial recall election. The campaign ‘Recall Gavin’ started last June after Governor Newsom ate in a restaurant when coronavirus rules advised against the move. Since then, California’s Secretary of State had to confirm over 2 million petition signatures, many of which were validated as they met the threshold required for the election.
Newsom called it a GOP recall election as well as said that the campaign is run by anti-immigrant Donald Trump supporters, anti-vaxxers, and QAnon conspiracy theorists. September 14, 2021, will witness the election where Californians will determine whether Newsom should be recalled from the gubernatorial office and a successor should be chosen. There are so many candidates in the election that we cannot talk about all of them here due to space limitations. That is to say, one of these candidates could also be the next state governor.
Republican Candidates
Kevin Faulconer
A former San Diego mayor with around 20 years of experience as a local administrator, Faulconer understands how important small businesses are. He also puts importance on the plan to save California’s restaurant sector. In the plan, he promises to open all restaurants in California again without coronavirus capacity caps and remove the emergency ordinances of the state. Faulconer plans on establishing a funding plan for those restaurants with fewer sales figures in 2020 than in the year before. The campaign website of Faulconer discusses the plan to offer each of those restaurants as much as $20,000 as a state relief grant.
Larry Elder
A SoCal native with conservative views, Elder built a career as a talk show host in radio. As a candidate in the state’s election, the first political showing of Elder will be to challenge Governor Newsom. Nevertheless, thanks to his radio presence, the right-leaning political values of Elder have been revealed to nationwide listeners for almost three decades now.
In a bid to get the gubernatorial seat, Elder has never been coy about discussing his zero minimum wage idea. As per the newspaper named the Sacramento Bee, Elder stated that $0.00 should be the state’s minimum wage. Elder describes California’s existing minimum wage as a burden for businesses. Therefore, if he becomes California’s governor, he said that he would remove the state’s minimum wage, thereby allowing businesses to establish their wages.
Steve Chavez Lodge
Orange County native Steve Lodge is a conservative with over 96,000 followers on Instagram who campaigns as a GOP in the election. Lodge plans on tackling the state’s homelessness issue, which he puts down to public policies, the government’s reluctance to admit its mistakes, and horrific legislation. Lodge’s campaign pays attention to reducing the cost of buying everyday products and services in California. The slogan that Lodge uses in his political campaign is a bit similar to ‘Make America Great Again’, Donald Trump’s slogan for the 2016 US presidential election.
At present, Lodge owns a consulting firm in California’s Orange County. Earlier, he was working for the Santa Ana Police Department as a homicide detective, a position that earned him multiple awards from the department. In OC, he competed in the 2016 Anaheim City Council election.
Democratic Candidates
Patrick Kilpatrick
Actor, producer and writer Patrick Kilpatrick wants to reduce taxes in California and put cash in the hands of all natives of the state. Kilpatrick describes himself as a freethinking patriot. One of the main policies in his campaign is to bring the Hollywood industry back to the state. He wants to use incentives to bring in employment positions to the film and television industry. Kilpatrick said that he wants to reduce taxes and stop homelessness in this state, and he has a zero-tolerance approach to crime.
Holly Baade
The Joyful Warrior Shaman School’s Holly Baade states that she is a bridge-builder. Baade’s campaign states that she wishes to stop the tyranny, litigate the tyrants, empower the people, make shared abundance possible, and do more. Baade stated that she feels that she could use art, technology, entrepreneurship and science to restore balance here in California.
Kevin Paffrath
Describing himself as a JFK-style Democratic Party member, Paffrath said that he would put an end to homelessness in two months of getting elected. An emergency declaration, which would make emergency optional accommodation, would be part of his ambitious proposition related to California’s homelessness issue. The housing facilities would offer mental health and medical aid, alongside hygiene services and food.
The pandemic plan of Paffrath involves stopping lockdown restrictions as well as incorporating a vaccination rollout based on incentives and proper masking through N-95 masks.
Paffrath has faith in community policing, which would involve completely funding better training for law enforcement and ending law enforcement practices that target minorities.
Daniel Watts
Freedom of speech advocate Watts believes that those kinds of rights are attacked in colleges. The top priorities in his campaign include protecting freedom of speech and making California’s public schools affordable. Watts wants to turn to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to audit those schools and approve FIRE’s effort to protect the constitutional rights of students. If he approves the above-mentioned, then the public schools concerned would be able to provide free education.
Joel Ventresca
Ventresca feels that he is more qualified to replace Governor Newsom than every other Democratic candidate in the election. Ventresca is no stranger to being a government officer as he has been in several such positions over the past many years. His main campaign priorities include setting $16 per hour as the state’s minimum wage as well as ending mass incarceration and homelessness. Ventresca is also committed to causing public transportation to be free for Californians and turning it into the US’s first state without carbon emissions.
Libertarian Party (LP) Candidate
Jeffrey Hewitt
Hewitt is a member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. He has been a Riverside County resident for a long time now and attended California State University, San Bernardino. Besides wanting to pay attention to water policy and education, Hewitt reveals through his gubernatorial campaign site that he wants to solve the state’s housing crisis.
