Fingers crossed.
May he reap what he’s sown.
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The real “hoist by their own petard” outcome that I’d like to see from this is that the recall procedures in California will now get overhauled by the California’s supermajority-dem-legislature to prevent this becoming a recurring electoral tactic.
Possibly by raising the threshold of voters who need to petition for a recall to get started, and certainly by eliminating the “49% to 20%, 20% wins” dynamic of the recall mechanism. Rather than have it be a two-question ballot, just have it be a one-question, with the current governor appearing on the ballot as a candidate. (And a vote on this line is considered tantamount to “no” on recall. BUT that some other single candidate will have to garner more support for the outcome to be a “yes”.) Effectively make the process a call for a snap election.
Maybe also introduce a ranked-choice mechanism as well, whereby staunch democrats can voice full-throated support for the incumbent and ALSO express who the backup should be if the recall succeeds somehow. And perhaps introduce a top-3 primary mechanism as well (similar to other statewide California office elections), so that the list of possible candidates to vote for in the ultimate recall vote isn’t a rogues gallery.
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Plus he likely doesn’t even need to keep beating the fraud drum. The masses will take it up on his behalf.
Lets hope the strong turn-out against the GOP here is a preview of the mid-terms. The GOP is expecting to turn things around to their favor. I’d like to see them be punished and loose more ground. We have to come out to the polls like its 2020 again. This one is as important, if not more important than defeating trump. Burying him is the next step.
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I believe they and the people that originally voted to have the option for a referendum law should pay everyone back.
The law was enacted in 1911, so none of them are alive. It’s only been used successfuly twice since then to force a recall election, in 2003 and now, both times by right-wingers abusing it in their usual bad faith. We know who wasted all that taxpayer money: the same arseholes who whinge about deficits and moral hazard and fiscal and personal responsibility.
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From what a friend in California has told me, the emails have already gone out for the fundraising for the legal challenges.
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Article II of the state constitution allowing for the recalls was approved by California voters in 1911.
The concept of allowing voters to recall corrupt or criminal elected officials is sound, and the law was created to address a real problem they had at the time with railroad barons buying corrupt politicians of both parties. But obviously the process needs to be reformed in some of the ways that others have suggested upthread.
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So now only the rich get to use a feature of the California constitution intended for its citizens?
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Poe’s Law sure did a number on me there.
Hahaha it can hapepn 
Elder abandoned his efforts to claim the election was rigged and instead asked his voters to be “gracious in defeat”.
This man will never progress any further as a Republican if that is how he handles things.
The GQP playbook is: self-interested irrationality, denial, doubling-down on denial.
I can already hear Trump calling Elder a “loser.” How can Trump cheerlead for Elder if Elder himself won’t call the election Rigged?
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I was saying something like this in the aftermath of 2020, of the D side losing some of its numerical advantage in the House.
Basically that, yes, the party with the presidency usually loses seats in the following midterm election, but that some of that effect was already baked in to the results we saw in 2020, with Trumpists rallying to the polls for that election. That we really may not see that effect in 2022, or only to a minimal extent. (Maybe another 1-3 net seat losses.)
Here’s hoping.
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CNN’s chief national affairs reporter Kasie Hunt had the gall to argue the lesson is that Democrats need to work harder to win over the GOP.
As expected, she is skipping over the part where Newsom took off after he stopped playing nice with Covid and its friends in the GOP and made anti-Covid efforts his rallying cry.
GOP insiders know that they win if the Democrats adopt a wishy-washy, indecisive position on Covid that tells the large majority of vaxxed and mask rule following voters that Democrats don’t appreciate their sacrifices.
The operators know most voters want decisive leadership, and they need CNN and the rest of the press to concern troll the Democrats into looking away from the trajectory of Newsom’s win. The operators want the Democrats to look hapless, and CNN is happy to comply.
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They did the Trump thing and started that even before the election. Because the only way a popular governor, who was recalled by only 12% of the state’s voters, could possibly win a recall is fraud, you know.
Especially given that he was multiple levels removed from the possibility of being governor - Newsom had to be recalled, despite no poll showing a majority support for that, then Elder had to win, out of 46 candidates (of which he wasn’t consistently a front-runner). Had he refused to concede, it would have been pretty pathetic and downright laughable. So it is still a bit of a surprise he did…
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By getting a landslide victory on the No vote, which implies a lot of Republicans also voted that way? Choosing to be a zentrum careerist forces one to come to bizarre conclusions.
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… and everybody in the audience booed him. Seriously.
Let’s not lose sight of this.
Yes, Elder surprised the hell out of me by quickly and appropriately conceding defeat. Good for him. The bar is so low even something as simple as this becomes surprising and noteworthy. Elder’s run for governor may be finished for now, but Trumpism sure as hell isn’t dead.
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Conceding makes it look like he was the contender, that it was a race between Newsom and him.
It’s better optics to be the guy who lost to Newsom, this time, rather than one of a bunch who never even got a chance to lose.
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