Sept. 15, 2021, 1:14 p.m. ET

California Recall Updates

This G.O.P. candidate’s hopes may rest with California Democrats.

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Kevin Faulconer, a Republican candidate for governor and a former San Diego mayor.Credit...Eric Risberg/Associated Press

He was the mayor of San Diego, California’s second-largest city, for the better part of a decade until he reached his term limit last year, praised in some quarters for being an increasingly rare moderate Republican in a state where the G.O.P. has struggled.

But many Californians could not pick Kevin Faulconer out of a lineup.

That has been a bit of a problem for Mr. Faulconer, who is one of more than 40 candidates vying to take Gov. Gavin Newsom’s place in Tuesday’s recall election. One recent poll shows Mr. Faulconer at a very distant second place to Larry Elder, the conservative radio host and Republican front-runner.

Unlike the other candidates, though, Mr. Faulconer has experience in government. In recent weeks, Democratic strategists and The Los Angeles Times’s editorial board have urged Californians to vote no on the recall question, and — rather than leave blank the question on which candidate should replace Mr. Newsom if he is recalled — “hold your nose and select” Mr. Faulconer.

Mr. Faulconer’s candidacy in the recall has been widely viewed as a chance to get his name in front of voters before running in the regular race for governor next year, which he announced early this year that he would join — regardless of whether a recall took place.

Mr. Faulconer said in an interview he was adamant that his collaborative “common-sense” approach to governance and focus on policy will resonate with Californians weary of partisan tribalism. And that, he said, is what he hopes will set him apart.

“My one goal is continuing to get out my message of someone who’s ready to lead, has the experience and will actually bring real solutions to California,” he said. “And somebody who knows how to bring people together.”

Here’s what else he had to say, lightly edited and condensed:

I’ll jump right into it: If you’re elected governor, would you keep mask, vaccine or other pandemic-related mandates in place?

I would say, first of all, I want everyone to get the vaccine. Every opportunity I get, I stress that — my family is vaccinated. That is the best way for us to get on the other side of this pandemic.

But you can’t mandate your way out of Covid-19. So I do not support mandates or bans, either way.

You have to let local health officials make those determinations based upon the facts on the ground in their area. Los Angeles is going to be different than Sacramento, which is going to be different than the Bay Area. So my policy is one of education, education, education.

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Kevin Paffrath, a Democrat, and the Republicans John Cox, Kevin Kiley and Kevin Faulconer at a debate in August.Credit...Pool photo by Scott Strazzante

So would you be in favor of lifting vaccine mandates for educators?

I’m a big believer in letting the local facts on the ground dictate the proper steps to take based upon the health conditions in that community.

You would leave that up to district officials or local public health officials?

I would leave that to local public health officials. I think we saw 90 percent of educators had gotten vaccinated without a mandate. Again, I think that speaks to the power of education.

What would you say to people in communities where public health officials have been threatened for doing their jobs and imposing restrictions, and where residents opposed to mask mandates have successfully pushed back against them?

I would say the science doesn’t change based on politics. And I again urge you to trust the science and the local conditions in that community.

So would you immediately reverse all the mandates that apply to state workers?

I would allow local officials to make those decisions for themselves. I believe that testing is a responsible solution. Again, I want everyone to get vaccinated, and I absolutely believe that helps reduce the vaccine hesitancy if you’re not mandating everything.

You’ve talked a lot about better addressing homelessness than Governor Newsom. What would your priorities be?

We took very significant action in San Diego to change the dynamics. It was compassionate and it was firm. I did not allow tent encampments on the sidewalks in San Diego and in our public spaces because I believe if you let somebody live in an unsafe, unclean, unsanitary environment, you’re condemning them to die there. And we’re better than that.

We were the only big city in California where we actually reduced homelessness by double digits. I set up a series of shelters in San Diego, and I made a deal with the community. I said, “It’s going to be cleaner and safer with this shelter than before it was there.”

I created a new division of the San Diego Police Department called the Neighborhood Policing Division and it made a dramatic difference. These were officers, so our police officers, but in khaki pants and blue polo shirts. They became the No. 1 entity to refer people to the shelters.

I’m going to lead by example as governor and do the same thing. I believe that every human being has a right to shelter. I also believe that when we provide that shelter, you have an obligation to use it, and I enforced that.

During your tenure as mayor, San Diego pushed forward some of the most aggressive laws in the state for creating accessory dwelling units on single-family lots. And the state’s Senate Bill 9 just passed, which allows duplexes in single-family neighborhoods. Do you think the state should go further? Do you support S.B. 9?

We need to produce more housing, period. And one of the things that this governor has completely ignored is reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, which is used to stop housing projects in California. It takes too much time. It takes too much extra dollars. It makes it more expensive.

But really quickly, what’s your stance on S.B. 9?

I believe our best opportunity is in our multifamily zones. What you don’t want to do is eliminate all single-family zoning, as some in the Legislature are advocating. I think our biggest opportunity to have the density where you want it is along our transit zones. And that’s exactly what we did in San Diego, with our Complete Communities that we passed.

So do you support S.B. 9?

You can’t eliminate single-family zoning. No.

In 2016, you opposed former President Donald Trump. In 2020, you supported him. Where do you stand now?

I did in 2020, and my vote was based upon the economy. I haven’t interacted with him since I was mayor.

I think Gavin Newsom wants to make this campaign all about the former president. I think what Californians want is a governor who’s going to focus on California. The former president didn’t call himself the homeless czar like Gavin Newsom. It’s not the former president who’s not moving forward on water storage in California, wildfire reduction. This recall is really a referendum on Gavin Newsom’s failures.

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Mr. Faulconer boarding his campaign bus after an event at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles in August.Credit...Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

The former president, as you said, is not in charge of California. At the same time, he is clearly influencing the Republican Party across the country. What do you think the Republican Party stands for now? And what do you align with, if not former President Trump?

I believe we need to make it more affordable for families in California. That’s why I put forward the largest middle-class tax cut in California history.

People are voting with their feet. They’re leaving our state because it’s too expensive. I believe we need to make it easier to build and start a small business. It’s not having a carbon copy of the national party. I call myself a California Republican.

What does that mean to you? Democrats have a huge advantage in terms of registration in California — how does the California Republican Party need to shift?

The registration in the city of San Diego mirrors that of California as a whole. How do you win in California? You win by focusing on issues and common sense. You have to build coalitions. That’s exactly what I did as mayor.

That’s what this campaign has been built on, which is if you’re a Republican, I want your vote. If you’re a Democrat, I want your vote. If you’re an independent, I want your vote. And I think nobody else who’s running has also had to work with a legislature or, in my case, a majority-Democrat City Council.

And so all of the housing reforms that you and I have just talked about, all of the homeless action that we took, all of the action on public safety, which I was very proud of, all of my budgets — every single one had to be approved by a majority-Democrat legislature.

How did you feel about extending pandemic aid to undocumented workers, many of whom were essential. And would you reverse any legislation that gives undocumented people access to health care or driver’s licenses?

My focus would have been obviously on Californians.

You don’t think undocumented residents of California are Californians?

I do, but like I said, legal citizens would have been my focus.

I think that our immigration policy is completely broken at the federal level. And I’ve supported comprehensive immigration reform very loudly for a very long time. As governor I would advocate for that, because we know that the effects of a broken immigration policy affect us so incredibly much here in California.

If you don’t become governor in the recall, you’re planning to run again next year.

I was absolutely planning to run in 2022 when I started. I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think that California was ready for a change, that we should have a competition of ideas. We’ve had one-party rule in California now for over a decade. And I believe that that has led to just a state going in the wrong direction.

Newsom opens a double-digit lead in polls as the election deadline nears.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom of California at a rally in San Leandro, Calif., this week.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

When the campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom qualified for the ballot in April, Democrats scoffed. It was a futile piece of theater from the far right, they said. California is, after all, one of the bluest states in the country.

Then, abruptly and to Democrats’ alarm, the polls tightened. “Keep” and “remove” drew almost even. The party dispatched leaders as high as Vice President Kamala Harris to campaign with Mr. Newsom.

And now, with the election days away, we seem to have circled right back to where we started.

Mr. Newsom has opened a double-digit lead in recent polls, and it appears to be growing. A polling average compiled by FiveThirtyEight had “keep” at 55.7 percent and “remove” at 41.3 percent as of Friday afternoon, and an average compiled by RealClearPolitics showed an even bigger gap, 56.7 percent to 41 percent. The last time an individual poll in either of those averages showed “remove” ahead was in early August.

The most recent poll was released Friday by The Los Angeles Times and the University of California, Berkeley, and found “keep” ahead by more than 20 percentage points.

The shift appears to have been driven by growing Democratic engagement — many Democrats were not paying attention to the recall before, or ignored it because they thought it would easily fail — and by Democrats’ success in reframing the campaign as a binary choice between Mr. Newsom and one Republican challenger, Larry Elder, as opposed to a referendum on Mr. Newsom himself.

Of course, polls are fallible — as the 2016 and 2020 elections certainly proved — and upsets are always possible. But the advantage, and the momentum, clearly belongs to Mr. Newsom.

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‘It’s not a healthy structure.’ Calls to change California’s recall laws get louder.

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A campaign worker set out signs for a “Stop the Republican Recall” rally in Culver City, Calif., last week.Credit...David Mcnew/Getty Images

The looming recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom has revealed something of a paradox among Californians: We hold dear our ability to recall elected leaders from office but believe the process by which we do so to be deeply flawed.

In recent weeks, there have been a growing number of calls to reform the state’s recall laws, as well as a (now dismissed) lawsuit that claimed the upcoming election was unconstitutional. As of July, two-thirds of Californians thought the process was ripe for change, according to a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Recalls in California are, frankly, confusing. In this election, some voters are unsure if they can vote on both questions on the ballot. Many are mystified as to how someone who wins as few as 10 percent of the votes could walk away the leader of 40 million people.

“It’s not a healthy structure,” Raphael Sonenshein, the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, told me. “I’m hoping after this one is over that we’re all going to sit down and say, ‘There’s got to be some better rules.’”

But, as with so many things, it is easier said than done.

The core components of California’s recall process are laid out in the State Constitution, where our right to a recall was enshrined in 1911.

And amending the Constitution is a difficult, two-step process:

First, the State Legislature would have to pass the proposed amendment with two-thirds support in each house. (Alternatively, voters could collect close to a million signatures in support — though experts say this route is less likely.)

Then, the amendment would appear on a statewide ballot, where it would require a simple majority to become law.

“The big items that have people in a twist — those things are all in the Constitution,” Matt Coles, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings, told me.

There are some less fundamental changes that could be approved by the Legislature without needing voter approval, such as a ban on paid signature gathering. But the most common ideas I’ve heard would require constitutional amendments.

I’ve laid some of them out below:

More signatures to qualify for the ballot

To get a recall on the ballot, the California Constitution requires that supporters collect signatures equal to 12 percent of the total votes cast in the previous election for governor.

That is among the lowest thresholds in the nation and part of why California is the unofficial recall capital of America, experts say.

“In 2020 alone, at least 14 governors nationwide faced recall efforts, but only California’s attempt proceeded to a ballot,” The Times’s editorial board wrote on Thursday, saying that was “due in part to those other states’ higher thresholds.”

In the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, more than half of Californians supported raising the threshold to 25 percent, a common level set by other states.

State Senator Josh Newman, a Democrat of Fullerton who was recalled in 2018, told me he planned to introduce legislation next year that would raise the bar to 20 percent.

Limiting recalls to illegal or unethical activity

Currently, an elected official in California may be recalled for any reason, a provision explicitly stated in the Constitution.

But 60 percent of Californians support rules that allow recalls only for illegal or unethical activity, according to the recent poll.

Replacing the recalled governor with the lieutenant governor

In some states, such as Oregon and Michigan, a governor who is recalled by voters is automatically replaced by the lieutenant governor.

But in California, as well as most of the 19 states that allow recalls of state officials, the choice is left in the hands of the voters.

Newman told me he planned to propose a constitutional amendment early next year to change that, which would eliminate the replacement question on the ballot.

“That’s what creates this incentive to stage a recall election,” he said. “Somebody could squeak through with a very small plurality.”

State Senator Ben Allen, a Santa Monica Democrat, has proposed a different fix. He has introduced a constitutional amendment that would allow a politician facing a recall to also run as a replacement candidate.

Others have suggested holding the replacement election on a separate day from the recall election. Having a runoff between the top two replacement candidates has also been floated.

All these changes, again, would require rewriting the state’s Constitution.

The furriest sideshow of the recall campaign is the center of a lawsuit.

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Tag, a 1,000-pound Kodiak bear, was the centerpiece of a John Cox campaign event.Credit...Renée C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee, via Associated Press

The campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has been going well for the governor lately. Less so for Tag the bear.

“Animal rights people are suing us,” said Keith Bauer, the longtime trainer for the 1,000-pound Kodiak who became famous this year as part of a campaign stunt for John Cox, one of the four dozen or so candidates challenging Mr. Newsom. “It’s ridiculous.”

Mr. Cox, a San Diego Republican who lost to Mr. Newsom in a landslide in 2018, garnered attention this spring when he began making appearances with the bear to underscore his campaign theme that Mr. Newsom was a privileged “beauty” while Mr. Cox was a powerful “beast.”

Bryan Pease, a lawyer who leads the board of the Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego, said the nonprofit group sued to enjoin Mr. Cox and the bear’s owner from bringing Tag back to San Diego.

The complaint, filed in San Diego Superior Court in May, notes that, other than in the zoo, municipal code bans bears and other wild animals from the city. It also alleges that drugs and electrical wires were used to keep the bear docile during appearances, citing an email from Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, the Kern County supplier of show business animals that owns the bear and rents him for events and commercials.

“They said Tag was drugged because he was so nice at personal appearances,” said Mr. Bauer, who was not named in the suit, which he called “groundless.”

“Tag is just nice,” he added. “What do you want me to do? Pinch him in the butt to make him mean?”

A spokesperson for Mr. Cox’s campaign blamed “liberal activists playing politics through the courts” for the lawsuit and denied that the bear was mistreated.

Mr. Pease said his animal rights group was “an equal opportunity assailant,” noting that it recently sent out a mass email condemning Representative Juan Vargas, a San Diego Democrat, for holding a fund-raiser at the Del Mar racetrack.

In any case, Tag’s trainer said, he and the bear have had little luck monetizing their campaign close-up.

“We’ve gotten a couple of jobs,” Mr. Bauer said, taking a break on Thursday from a job in Pittsburgh, where he was working with a trained squirrel named Nut Nut.

“But it hasn’t changed anything.”

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Here’s why Newsom is telling voters to leave half the ballot blank.

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Mail-in ballots for the recall election are delivered to the registrar’s office in Sacramento County.Credit...Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Unlike the sprawling forms Californians usually contend with in the voting booths, the ballots for the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom ask only two questions:

Should Mr. Newsom be recalled? And who should replace him?

And, as part of his strategy to avoid being recalled, Mr. Newsom has been telling people to ignore the second question altogether, leaving some voters baffled as to what to do.

“The single greatest confusion of this election is what your rights are in participating in the replacement election,” said Raphael Sonenshein, the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “Voting should be simple, and this is not so simple.”

A tricky political calculus for Democrats

California recalls are a two-step process: Voters decide whether to remove a candidate from office, and also who should be the replacement.

What’s unusual about California’s law is that it requires both elections to happen on the same day, on the same ballot. And the incumbent, in this case Mr. Newsom, is barred from running in the replacement election.

So that leaves Democrats to negotiate a tricky political calculus: How do you endorse a replacement candidate when you don’t want the governor to be replaced at all?

There are two main options:

A) Support a politically aligned Democrat in the replacement race and hope the candidate isn’t so popular that people vote to recall Mr. Newsom because they’d prefer the backup.

B) Ignore the second question and focus on the first.

The latter seems to be Mr. Newsom’s strategy.

In the 2003 recall election of another Democratic governor, Gray Davis, the party went the other route. Cruz Bustamante, the popular Democratic lieutenant governor, ran as a replacement candidate. Yet when Mr. Davis was ousted, he was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican candidate.

Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, said there was no evidence that having a prominent candidate from your party on the replacement ballot increases your odds of staying in office. In other words, Mr. Newsom’s strategy may be the best way for him to win the recall.

“When you’re in the majority, it makes a lot of sense to have a stark choice, and having two different people to vote for is not a stark choice,” Mr. Spivak said. “The optics of saying ‘Ignore the second question,’ I think that’s particularly bad, but not necessarily the logic behind it, which makes a lot of sense.”

The downside of leaving ballots blank

Still, confusion reigns.

In a recent poll, 49 percent of likely voters said they either wouldn’t fill out the second question or didn’t know who to vote for. Some California newspapers that have endorsed voting against the recall have recommended leaving the second question blank, while others have urged the opposite.

Jessica Levinson, who teaches election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said it was a “disaster” that members of the Democratic Party, who are supposed to be champions of voting rights, are advising people to leave parts of their ballots blank.

“Why would you say don’t even exercise your right to weigh in for who the next governor could be?” she said.

What Voters Should Know About the Newsom Recall

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Posters at a rally for Gov. Newsom in Los Angeles on Saturday. Credit...Allison Zaucha for The New York Times

The two questions Californians have been asked are simple: Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be removed from his job? And if so, who should take his place?

But as the Sept. 14 special election date to decide Mr. Newsom’s political fate comes into clearer view, many of the state’s 22 million registered and active voters have found themselves with more questions — about what’s at stake and how to ensure their voices are heard.

Here’s what voters need to know:

Where can I find election results?

You can follow live results on this page starting at 8 p.m. Pacific time when polls close in California.

Do I have to answer both questions on the ballot?

No — your vote will count even if you answer just one.

How can I check to see whether my ballot was counted?

You can track when your vote-by-mail ballot is mailed, received and counted at california.ballottrax.net/voter.

When is the recall election?

Officially, the recall election is on Sept. 14. But because it is happening under an extension of pandemic rules that were created during the 2020 presidential election, that’s really more of a deadline than it is an Election Day in a more traditional sense.

Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by Sept. 14. (You don’t need to add a stamp; you should have a return envelope.) Voters can also return their ballots to a secure drop box by Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. (Look up the ones closest to you here.)

Finally, voters can cast ballots in person — and in many places early voting is available. (You can find early voting locations here.)

How can I vote in the recall election?

All registered and active California voters should have received a ballot by mail in the past couple of weeks. You can mail that ballot back or drop it in a drop box. You can also vote in person.

Where can I drop off my ballot?

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Carrying a box of ballots for sorting at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday.Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

You can look up ballot drop boxes near you on the California secretary of state’s website. You can also mail the ballot back.

How do I check to see if I’m registered to vote?

You can check whether you’re registered to vote here. If you’re not registered within 14 days of an election, in California, you can also register the day of the vote. (So, in this case, on Sept. 14.) You can learn more about same-day voter registration here.

When is the last day to vote?

Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by Sept. 14. Ballots returned at a secure drop box must be deposited by 8 p.m. on Sept. 14.

Is there early voting in California?

Early voting began Sept. 4 in some areas, and all counties will have one or more locations for early voting from Sept. 11 to Sept. 14. Early voting locations opened starting Sept. 11 and ballot drop-off locations can be found here.

Who are the candidates vying to replace Governor Newsom?

There are 46 candidates listed on the ballot, a mix of politicians, entertainers and business people that includes the Olympian and reality television star Caitlyn Jenner; the businessman John Cox, who campaigned with a Kodiak bear; and Kevin Paffrath, a YouTube personality who in a debate suggested he’d solve California’s water problems with a pipeline to the Mississippi River.

Also on the ballot are the pink Corvette-driving Hollywood enigma Angelyne and a Green Party candidate, Dan Kapelovitz, whose official candidate bio says, simply, “Can you dig it?”

San Diego’s former mayor Kevin Faulconer, a moderate Republican, is also running, as is Kevin Kiley, a more conservative Republican state assemblyman and frequent antagonist of the governor. About half of the candidates are Republicans.

But it was the conservative talk radio host Larry Elder who emerged as a front-runner almost overnight, leveraging national name recognition. He has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans but has a large and fervent base of fans.

The Republican Doug Ose, a former congressman, will appear on the ballot, but he has stopped campaigning and has endorsed Mr. Kiley after having a heart attack.

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Can you write in a replacement candidate?

You can, but if it’s Gavin Newsom, it won’t count. Your write-in vote also will not count unless your preferred write-in candidate is on the state’s certified list of write-in candidates.

Can Newsom run as a replacement candidate?

No, and you can’t write him in. (See above.) California law prohibits the incumbent from being listed in a recall as a replacement candidate.

If I oppose the recall, can I still pick a candidate to replace him?

Yes.

Whom has Newsom recommended as a replacement candidate?

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The conservative talk radio host Larry Elder emerged as a front-runner almost overnight.Credit...Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

No one. In fact, Mr. Newsom has encouraged voters to skip that question entirely. (Just as long as they vote “No” on the question of whether he should be recalled.)

Will there be any other statewide measures on the ballot?

No, only the recall. There wasn’t enough time for any ballot initiatives to qualify.

When will we know the results of the election?

After Election Day, county election officials have to complete their work receiving and counting ballots, although we may have some idea of the vote by then, since nearly eight million ballots have already been returned and many more are expected to come in as we get closer. Counties can process early ballots and get them ready to count, but they cannot start tallying until 8 p.m. Pacific, when the polls close.

Vote counting tends to be slow in California because there are so many voters. And there is a seven-day window after the election to allow mail-in ballots postmarked on Sept. 14 to arrive.

But the large number of early returns should streamline the tally, and counties must begin reporting results to the states within two hours after the polls close.

Thirty-eight days after the election, the California secretary of state will certify the election results and, if the recall is successful, the new governor will be sworn in.

What if Governor Newsom is recalled, but he still has more support than any challenger on the ballot?

It doesn’t matter. The recall question is determined by majority vote. If more than 50 percent of the voters vote yes on the recall, Mr. Newsom must step down as governor.

The replacement question is determined by who gets the most votes among the challengers on the ballot. So 49.9 percent of the voters can back Mr. Newsom, and he can still lose to someone who is supported by only, say, 20 percent of the electorate. On the replacement question, the winner does not need a majority to be named the next governor.

Why isn’t California’s lieutenant governor automatically made governor after a recall?

In some states, such as Oregon and Michigan, if a governor is recalled by voters, the secretary of state or lieutenant governor automatically gets the job. But California law states that voters must choose who replaces the governor in an election.

Of the 19 states that allow recalls of state officials, most leave the choice of replacement in the hands of voters.

If Governor Newsom is recalled, how long will the new governor be in office?

The new governor would be in office for the remainder of Mr. Newsom’s term, which would be through Jan. 2, 2023. (California has a regularly scheduled election for governor next year.)

What are the key issues driving the recall?

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Recall supporters in Carlsbad, Calif., in June.Credit...Mike Blake/Reuters

Initially, the Republicans who started the recall disagreed with Mr. Newsom on issues like the death penalty and his opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies. The effort was widely viewed as a long shot.

Then two particular factors boosted the campaign: A judge allowed more time for leaders of the recall to gather signatures because of pandemic lockdowns. And growing frustration among some Californians over health restrictions came to a head when Mr. Newsom was seen dining maskless with lobbyists at an expensive, exclusive Napa Valley restaurant called the French Laundry after asking Californians to wear masks and stay home.

As the pandemic dragged on, recall supporters focused their arguments on the governor’s response, criticizing it as overly restrictive. Prolonged school closures drew ire during the last school year, as did pandemic unemployment fraud.

More recently, proponents have argued that broader social ills such as homelessness have worsened during Mr. Newsom’s tenure, that Democrats have de facto one-party rule in California and that the high cost of living is driving Californians out.

Mr. Newsom’s Democratic allies charge that the effort is an undemocratic far-right power grab by Trumpian extremists who would otherwise never see a Republican elected to California’s top state office.

They also note that if U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s term ends prematurely, the governor will appoint her replacement, which could flip the balance of power in the U.S. Senate and allow Republicans to block, for example, President Biden’s nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Newsom’s supporters have lauded the governor’s handling of the pandemic, citing California’s relative success in controlling the virus, record state aid for families and businesses hurt by the pandemic and California’s swift rebound to economic health.

Who is funding the campaigns for and against the recall?

The recall is being funded mostly by conservative and Republican donors. Geoff Palmer, a Southern California real estate developer and Donald Trump supporter, for instance, has donated more than $1 million. John Kruger, an Orange County charter school supporter who objected to pandemic restrictions on religious gatherings, donated $500,000 to the recall at an early key point. The Republican Party has pumped money into the effort, as have national figures such as Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor.

But money in favor of the recall has been dwarfed by the fund-raising against it. California law treats the recall question as a ballot issue, which means the campaigns for and against the recall can accept unlimited donations. The replacement candidates, however, must abide by a $32,400-per-election limit on individual contributions. All the donations to replacement candidates, put together, are still smaller than the governor’s war chest.

Among individual campaigns with the most money, those who have donated the maximum to Mr. Elder largely reflect the recall’s broader funding, with substantial contributions from conservative and Trump-supporting Republicans. Mr. Faulconer’s top donors include more moderate Republicans such as William Oberndorf, a major G.O.P. donor who opposed Mr. Trump’s election, and a variety of business interests. Mr. Cox, a Republican who lost in 2018 to Mr. Newsom, has largely self-funded his campaign.

The recall opposition is being funded mostly by establishment interests, organized labor and Democrats. The founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings, has donated $3 million to defend Mr. Newsom, for example. Show business and Silicon Valley have heavily donated against the recall. Labor groups — unions for teachers, prison guards, health workers and other public employees — have made major donations. So have tribal organizations in the state and major business groups such as the California Association of Realtors and chambers of commerce. Mr. Newsom used his financial edge to swamp his Republican rivals and proponents of the recall on television by a nearly four-to-one ratio in July and August, spending $20.4 million to the recall supporters’ $5.6 million, according to data provided by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Do California newspapers endorse the recall?

The Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Mercury News, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee have urged voters to vote no on the recall, arguing that, at a cost of some $276 million, it is a waste of money or that the time to vote for or against the governor is next year, when he runs for re-election.

The Orange County Register, which is traditionally a right-of-center opinion page, recommends a yes vote and endorsed Mr. Elder in an editorial that was picked up by some suburban papers under the same ownership in Southern California.

The Bakersfield Californian recommends a yes vote and endorsed Mr. Faulconer.

National newspapers also have weighed in on the recall. The New York Times came out in opposition to the recall, and The Wall Street Journal blamed it on housing policies in California.

Where can I get more detailed information?

Here is an expanded explainer. Here is an episode of “The Daily” podcast on the recall. Here is the California secretary of state’s guide to the recall.

Here is a guide from the nonprofit, nonpartisan news site CalMatters to Governor Newsom’s record. And here is a recent debate among Mr. Paffrath, Mr. Cox, Mr. Kiley and Mr. Faulconer.

Here are interviews with Mr. Elder, Mr. Kiley, Mr. Cox and Mr. Paffrath by CalMatters, a Fox News interview with Caitlyn Jenner; and an interview that The Sacramento Bee did with Mr. Faulconer.

Why are there holes in my ballot envelope?

State and local officials said the ballot holes in envelopes were placed in the envelope, on either end of a signature line, to help low-vision voters know where to sign it, said Jenna Dresner, a spokeswoman for the California Secretary of State’s Office of Election Cybersecurity.

One of the biggest unfounded rumors circulating about the election is that the holes were being used to screen out votes that say “yes” to a recall. Here’s more about how that rumor circulated online.

In what way could the recall process be changed?

Most changes to the process require amendments to the State Constitution, where the right to a recall was enshrined in 1911.

Amending the Constitution takes two steps:

First, the State Legislature has to pass the proposed amendment with two-thirds in support in each house. (Alternatively, voters can collect close to a million signatures in support; experts say this route is less likely.)

Then, the amendment appears on a statewide ballot, where it requires a simple majority to become law.

There are some less fundamental changes that the Legislature could enact without voter approval, such as a ban on paid signature gathering.

But the most common ideas — such as raising the signature requirement above 12 percent, allowing the incumbent to run as a replacement candidate or having the lieutenant governor automatically replace a recalled governor — would require constitutional amendments.

Soumya Karlamangla and Davey Alba contributed reporting.

A correction was made on 
Sept. 15, 2021

An earlier version of this article misidentified the official that becomes governor if one is recalled in Oregon. It is the secretary of state, not the lieutenant governor, which Oregon does not have.

How we handle corrections

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How Did Larry Elder Become a Front-Runner in California’s Governor Race?

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Larry Elder greets supporters during a campaign stop in Castaic, California.Credit...Allison Zaucha for The New York Times

SACRAMENTO — For a generation, Larry Elder has been an AM radio fixture for millions of Californians, the voice they could count on when they were fed up with liberal Democratic politics. Undocumented immigrants? Deport them. Affirmative action? End it. Equal pay? The glass ceiling doesn’t exist.

Now Mr. Elder, a Los Angeles Republican who bills himself as “the sage from South Central,” could end up as the next governor of the nation’s most populous state. As the campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has become a dead heat among likely voters, Mr. Elder has emerged almost overnight as the front-runner in the campaign to replace him.

Fueled by a combination of arcane recall rules, name recognition and partisan desperation, his rise to the top of a pack of some four dozen challengers has stunned and unnerved many in both parties.

Democrats call him the agent of a far-right power grab. Republican rivals say he is an inexperienced, debate-dodging opportunist. Orrin Heatlie, the retired sheriff’s sergeant who is the recall’s lead proponent, said he and his fellow activists were voting for someone else.

This month, The Sacramento Bee and two Republican candidates — Kevin Faulconer, the former San Diego mayor, and Caitlyn Jenner, the television personality and former Olympian — demanded that Mr. Elder drop out of the race after an ex-girlfriend of his said he brandished a gun at her while high on marijuana during a 2015 breakup.

“We were having a conversation and he walked to the drawer and took out a .45 and checked to see that it was loaded,” Alexandra Datig, 51, said in an interview. Ms. Datig, who worked as an escort in the 1990s and now runs Front Page Index, a conservative website, said: “He wanted me to know he was ready to be very threatening to me. He’s a talented entertainer, but he shouldn’t be governor.”

Mr. Elder, 69, did not respond to requests for comment about Ms. Datig’s claims, but he did tweet that he has “never brandished a gun at anyone,” adding, “I am not going to dignify this with a response.”

The onslaught has come as a Sept. 14 election deadline nears. Ballots have been mailed to all active registered voters, asking whether the governor should be replaced, and, if so, by whom.

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Supporters of Mr. Elder outside of a debate by Republican candidates this month.Credit...Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Constitutional scholars say Mr. Elder’s sudden ascent is an example of all that is wrong with the recall process, which requires a majority to recall a governor but only a plurality of votes for the replacement candidate to win. With 46 challengers on the ballot, 49.9 percent of the electorate could vote to keep Mr. Newsom, and he could still lose to a replacement who is supported by only a tiny sliver of voters. Polls show a rout by Mr. Newsom among all Californians but a far tighter race among likely voters, 20 percent of whom favor Mr. Elder.

Mr. Newsom, whose fate rides on turnout, has made a foil of Mr. Elder, a “small-l libertarian” who reliably agitates the governor’s base with claims, for instance, that the minimum wage should be zero, the “war on oil” should be ended and racial preferences are destructive.

“The leading candidate thinks climate change is a hoax, believes we need more offshore oil drilling, more fracking, does not believe a woman has the right to choose, actually came out against Roe v. Wade, does not believe in a minimum wage,” Mr. Newsom has told supporters.

“Don’t paint me as some wild-eyed radical,” Mr. Elder said in a recent interview. “I’m running because of crime, homelessness, the rising cost of living and the outrageous decisions made during Covid that shut down the state.”

To his loyal listeners, Mr. Elder paints himself as the native son of a California that was once simpler and safer than the teeming, disaster-prone nation-state he sees anchoring the West Coast today. Listeners know that his father, a former U.S. Marine, saved his pay as a janitor to open a restaurant in Los Angeles’s Pico-Union district, and to buy a house in a neighborhood that shifted from mostly white to mostly Black residents in less than a decade.

His father was also violently abusive, Mr. Elder wrote in 2018, driving him to leave home the moment he graduated from Crenshaw High School. Admitted to Brown University under an early affirmative action program, Mr. Elder, the second of three sons, stayed away from California for years, moving on to the University of Michigan Law School and becoming a lawyer and legal recruiter in Ohio.

He was a guest on a Cleveland PBS show when the stand-in host, the Los Angeles-based conservative talk radio host Dennis Prager, suggested he come back.

“I was so impressed with his original mind and phenomenal grasp of the issues that when I returned to Los Angeles I invited him onto my show — solely in order to persuade the KABC station manager to hire him,” Mr. Prager wrote in an email.

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Mr. Elder in a Burbank, Calif., studio last month. He has been on talk radio in the Los Angeles area since 1994.Credit...Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

It was the age of Rush Limbaugh, and Mr. Elder rose swiftly. Los Angeles progressives boycotted his advertisers, but he hung on, writing books, making Fox News appearances and expanding through syndication until 2014, when the station abruptly fired him. Another station soon picked him up; Salem Media Group has syndicated his show since 2016 and is holding his slot while he campaigns.

“I have never, ever, ever, ever thought I would be entering politics,” Mr. Elder said. But he was persuaded, he said, by Mr. Prager, Jack Hibbs, the evangelical pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, and a host of others including radio colleagues, his barber and his dry cleaner.

“I kept waiting for somebody to say, ‘Are you kidding?’” he said. “But nobody said that. People said: ‘If not you, who? If not now, when?’”

Mr. Elder’s political positions speak loudly and clearly to the state’s small but vocal strain of far-right conservatism. He supports school vouchers and prioritizes jobs over environmental and climate considerations. He opposes abortion. He is vaccinated against the coronavirus because of a rare blood condition but opposes vaccine and mask “mandates.”

And, G.O.P. consultants note, Mr. Elder is among a handful of California Republicans with enough name recognition to compete in a state of almost 40 million people.

“I’ve been a listener of his for years,” said Shelby Nicole Owens, 35, a Republican in the rural community of Sonora who admired Mr. Elder’s consistency and “common-sense approach” long before her ballot arrived in her mailbox.

“Done and done!” she posted on his Facebook page, adding a kiss-blowing emoji after marking her vote.

But establishment Republicans such as Mr. Faulconer say he is more suited to provocation than to governing.

While other candidates disclosed their income taxes, Mr. Elder supplied partial returns and then successfully challenged the state requirement, keeping his private.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom has made a foil of Mr. Elder, a “small-l libertarian” who reliably agitates the governor’s base.Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

After incomplete conflict-of-interest disclosures — now being investigated by state campaign finance regulators — were amended, they showed that Mr. Elder is being paid by The Epoch Times, a purveyor of political misinformation and far-right conspiracy theories.

He has refused to debate other Republicans and bashed the news media when challenged. He has told left-leaning editorial boards that President Biden fairly won in 2020 and conservative radio interviewers that he did not.

He has recanted assertions made in 2008 that climate change is “a crock” but, in an interview, offered $10,000 to charity for proof he had ever said that and falsely claimed that “nobody really knows to what degree” humans caused climate change. He has written that Democrats do better with female voters because, according to academic research, “women know less than men about political issues.”

In an interview this month, Mr. Elder said he had been single since an amicable divorce in the 1990s, and now shares his Hollywood Hills home with a girlfriend who is an interior designer.

Asked about Ms. Datig, he said they had dated “for a few months and that’s it.” Ms. Datig said they lived together between 2013 and 2015 for 18 months and discussed marriage.

Employed by Heidi Fleiss and the now-deceased Beverly Hills Madam during the 1990s, Ms. Datig has since spoken publicly against sex trafficking and worked as an assistant to a now-retired Los Angeles city councilman. She used her connections to help Mr. Elder get a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, she said, and tattooed “Larry’s Girl” across her lower back.

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Mr. Elder and Alexandra Datig, a former girlfriend, in an undated photo.Credit...via Alexandra Datig

But as the relationship deteriorated, she said, he threatened eviction. A legal agreement shows she left for $13,000 in relocation money, $7,000 for tattoo removal and a Cadillac.

She did not report the alleged gun incident to the police, she said, in part because she had signed a 2014 nondisclosure agreement, but she did ask for help from acquaintances and city officials. Three confirmed last week that they had gotten her emails.

Ms. Datig, who has endorsed Mr. Faulconer, said she went public after learning that her NDA was less restrictive than she had realized.

And Ms. Owens, the voter? At her farm in Tuolumne County, she predicted that fans of Mr. Elder would be unshaken.

“There does not seem to be a politician alive today,” she said, “that doesn’t have some sort of past relationship scandal.”

The sage from South Central, she added, still has her vote.

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