But while some of the top candidates vying to replace Newsom met Wednesday night at a debate in Sacramento, where they portrayed him as ill-equipped to deal with the state’s many crises, there are some early signs that Democrats show they don’t waste time returning email votes in their effort to stop the withdrawal.
Four of the most prominent candidates who chose to replace Newsom harshly criticized his track record in the debate sponsored by KCRA 3 and the San Francisco Chronicle. Conservative talk radio presenter Larry Elder, the Republican Party’s top candidate in recent polls, declined to participate, but several candidates still shot him in his absence.
“It’s about our government’s failure to do the most basic things, such as managing our forests, and the result, of course, is that communities are at risk and we continue to have these catastrophic events,” Kiley said. “Everything has continued to get worse. The quality of life in California has continued to decline. This is the story of modern California, as Gavin Newsom represented: that we sacrifice more and get the minimum in return.”
Although most of the fire was directed at Newsom, Faulconer launched a strong attack on Elder, blaming the talk radio presenter for his previous comments about women. He alluded to Elder’s endorsement of discrimination on the basis of pregnancy in his books, which was first reported by Media Matters, and his claim that women exaggerate sexism, one of several controversial past observations that they were called CNN’s KFile last week.
“Her attack on working women is unconscious,” Faulconer said of Elder. The former mayor of San Diego then spoke directly to working mothers: “I will support your right to start a family, to have a career. Unlike what Larry Elder is talking about, I will make sure that California daughters have the “We need a governor who defends working women and who knows that all women in this state can have a career, they can start a family.”
Paffrath, who was the only Democrat on stage Wednesday night, also criticized Elder for considering him a “threat” to Californians and accused him of palliating “with his misinformed friends” on Fox News in instead of joining the debate. He urged his Democrats to consider him a substitute candidate, although Newsom and Democratic Party leaders have urged his party’s voters to simply vote “no” in retrieving the governor and return their ballots unanswered. the second question.
Paffrath, in their debate to debate, and Faulconer discussed their respective levels of experience during an exchange about what steps they would take to build more affordable housing in California.
“It’s not the time for job training, for YouTube, someone who has never had to pass legislation, has had to build and build units,” Faulconer told Paffrath. “I think it’s a clear difference between you and me, my friend. And that’s why it’s important that we choose a governor who can touch the ground on the first day, who is successful working with Democrats and Republicans to get housing to the fine “line as we did in San Diego.”
Paffrath defended his experience and described himself as a “JFK-style Democrat who can work with our democratic legislature.”
“I’ve been working in real estate for 11 years and my experience doesn’t include tearing up my city,” Paffrath said, alluding to the controversy over several San Diego building acquisitions while Faulconer was mayor, subject to an audit recent San Diego Municipal Auditor. “A vote for any Republican, including those who are not there, is a wasted vote,” Paffrath added.
Paffrath also injected fresh energy into the forum with his unbeatable ideas, including building an interstate pipeline in Mississippi to help resolve the California water crisis.
The three Republican candidates argued that Newsom’s Covid-19 restrictions were excessive. Cox described the disaster of Newsom’s manipulation of Covid-19.
“This state is a mismanaged mess,” Cox said. “His management of the pandemic was an inconsistent disaster … We have no water. We live in fear of fires. Crime is rising. Housing prices are out of sight. Taxes are out of sight. The problem of homelessness has only gotten worse … We need to stop these politicians and celebrities and get a businessman there. “
While arguing that local school districts should make decisions about mask warrants under discussion with parents, Faulconer argued that Newsom has been too quick to create warrants and regulations across the state.
“Our state is very big, it’s very diverse. That’s the wrong approach,” Faulconer said. “Our schools should have been open this past semester … My daughter should have been in school this past semester, just like kids all over the rest of California: in the classroom, learning with security with great teachers. Zoom was not a substitute. We had a governor who did not understand and now we are still dealing with these consequences. ”
The first returns look promising for Democrats
At a time when 22 million votes have already been sent to Golden State voters, Democrats and labor groups are making an intense effort to convince their voters to participate after the poll after the poll has shown Republican voters are more committed and awake Democrats as the Sept. 14 election approaches.
The intense push by Democrats and allied groups to counter the disengagement of Democratic voters will get a boost from the White House on Friday when Vice President Kamala Harris, a former U.S. senator in California, will reunite voters with Newsom in the Bay Area. The White House also announced Wednesday that President Joe Biden will campaign for Newsom in California on an unspecified date.
In raw numbers, Democrats have a clear advantage in a state where they outnumber Republicans by nearly two to one. But many longtime California strategists say it’s hard to predict what the turnout universe will look like in a September election each year, where every state-registered voter will receive a ballot.
Paul Mitchell, Vice President of Political Data Inc. – a company that works for Democratic candidates, progressive organizations and non-partisan campaigns – said it is seeing “large initial numbers of Democrats” as its company tracks the ballots that are being made returned in real time.
But he noted that there are many warnings in this first stage. Democrats used to vote by mail in 2020, while Republicans preferred to vote later in person, in part because of the distrust generated by former President Donald Trump with his many false claims about ballot box security. by mail.
Mitchell also noted that many of the first returning ballot boxes came from two huge democratic redoubts of the golden state that sent their ballot boxes to voters before many other counties: San Francisco and Los Angeles counties.
Still Mitchell and several other Democratic strategists said early trends in the return of votes look promising for Democrats who want to defeat the withdrawal. As of Wednesday, the tracking of votes by Political Data Inc. again showed that of the 1.5 million sent so far, 57% were Democratic votes, while only 21% were Republican Party votes.
“As in this Tour de France cycling metaphor, Democrats are on this big getaway,” Mitchell said in an interview. “They have a big advantage, but this race will last for another three weeks and Republicans could definitely catch up.”