With 1.95 million signatures in hand, the Recall campaign has announced an election to remove Gavin Newsom from office is now assured. Still, we’re aiming for 2 million by the March 17 deadline.
My friend Randy Economy, the Recall’s official spokesman, said it well: “One thing we want to let everybody know here, especially to the politicians across the street and the lobbyists that have destroyed California’s dream for decades and generations is that your game’s over. From now on, the people are in charge of California.”
For years, our state has been on a seemingly irreversible decline. This last year, Gavin Newsom brought that decline to a total freefall.
For years, our citizens have lost more and more freedom to Sacramento. This last year, we lost everything to a single person.
For years, the architecture of self-government has been dismantled, brick by brick. This last year, the entire edifice came crashing down.
But the people of California refused to remain trapped in the rubble. Disenfranchised and dispossessed, we fought back. We availed ourselves of a last remaining recourse, a tool that is simple yet powerful, an act that is rote yet revolutionary: writing your name in cursive on a piece of paper.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of countless volunteers – outside of Walmarts and Hobby Lobbys, at places of business and places of worship, through organized rallies and spontaneous encounters – those pieces of paper piled up on a breathtaking scale, turning a sea of discontent into a watershed for our democracy.
Signature by signature, you have built the greatest citizens’ movement California history. You have given us a chance to save our state. You have given us hope.
California is worth fighting for, and that fight is just getting started.