Dump Governor Newsom, here’s my three choices

August 24, 2021

Gov. Gavin Newsom

OPINION by GORDON MULLIN

By now, all Californians are aware that voters have the opportunity to bounce Gov. Gavin Newsom from office or save him, depending on your inclination.

Election day is Sept. 14, but many of you need not wait. Some will use the ballot that has landed in your mailbox to clean house or support the Democrats’ vision — i.e. get more of the same.

The ballot consists of two questions: First is, “Shall Gavin Newsom be recalled (removed) from the office of governor?” No surprise to many of you, I’ll be voting him off the island and have my fingers crossed in the hope that at least 50% of you agree.

The second question asks us to choose a candidate to succeed Newsom, should the recall be successful.

No matter how you vote on the first question, you can still vote on the second.

In the interests of voter edification, I have my own short list of conservatives I support. I have only three on my list; one is currently serving in the state Assembly and the other two have never held elective office.

A note on that last point. I disagree with The Tribune’s opinion page editor, Stephanie Finucane, that a suitable candidate should have prior experience in government. Perhaps nice to have, but not necessary in my opinion.

What’s required is an enduring interest in politics and public policy. Career politicians are often suspect in my view. With the current overabundance of state legislators who have no experience outside the corridors of government, it may well be to our benefit to have an outsider holding the apex seat.

As an excellent example of an outsider, our own governor from 1967 to 1975, Ronald Reagan, defeated two-term Pat Brown (my father’s favorite governor) having never held government office before. As we know, Reagan, after serving two terms as governor, went on to become perhaps the most successful president in the last half of the 20th century, crushing Walter Mondale in 1984 by winning every state’s electoral vote save Mondale’s home state of Minnesota.

Larry Elder

First on my favored list of governors-to-be and leading in the polls is Larry Elder. He was born in Los Angeles; his father was a Marine and mom worked for the Department of War during WWII. An honors student during high school, he went to college and obtained his law degree in 1977. In 1980, Elder founded a legal executive search firm he owned till 1995. He is today a radio and TV talk show host and columnist and perennial thorn in the side of California Democrats.

Mr. Elder is an unabashed libertarian, conservative and a registered Republican. He opposed California Prop. 47, which lowered sentences for property crimes; has been critical of public sector labor unions; advocates school choice for parents; and is also a strong advocate of the two-parent family at a time when the very topic drips with political polarization.

And he’s black.

Jenny Rae Le Roux

My other favored candidate without government experience is a long shot. Jenny Rae Le Roux is a successful businesswoman with a BA in Economics and an MBA from Columbia. I’ve heard her speak several times and she may be the smartest person in the room — any room.

Ms. Le Roux is a planner. Clearly, she thinks through any problem, business or governmental, before articulating solutions. For example, her six-part plan to revive what she terms (and I agree) the worst business climate in America, starts by removing government edicts where they do more harm than good.

The California Chamber of Commerce outlined 319 anti-business bills the Legislature passed since 2010. Ms. Le Roux promises to veto any such bills that arrive on her desk as governor. As well, she vows to work to undo the dysfunction of AB 5, which converted independent contractors into employees even over the objection of both the contractor and the business owner.

She knows the K-12 education system, especially in our metropolitan areas, is frequently a disaster.

“California is ranked 40th in the nation by US News and World Report, even though education is the most expensive line item in our budget,” she writes on her website.

She also promises to “deprioritize courses that teach young children one-sided ideologies” such as Critical Race Theory.

As stated above, she is indeed a long shot, but I encourage you to dive into her website, read her well-thought-out ideas and give her due consideration. We can certainly do worse than her, but I am hard pressed to pick a more lucid, clear-minded option in this crowded field to replace Newsom.

Kevin Kiley

Which brings us to my sole elected candidate, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley. High school English teacher, lawyer (Harvard then Yale), prosecutor, deputy attorney general, he has had a distinguished career and he’s willing to give up a solid conservative seat, won in 2020 with the most votes of any Republican in California history, just to displace Newsom.

Fun fact: Newsom lives in Kiley’s district.

Mr. Kiley literally wrote the book on Newsom’s recall, “Recall Newsom — The Case Against America’s Most Corrupt Governor.”

For anyone interested in a deep dive into Newsom’s history of malfeasance and self-serving arbitrary governance, this is your book. It’s short and eminently readable. It also outlines Kiley’s roadmap to end California’s dysfunction and that starts with Newsom’s removal from office.

Please God, let it be so.


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Newsom needs to go, there are too many problems that he hasn’t fixed or even delt with, the EDD, DMV and the train to nowhere, oh and the zillion dollars that he gave to some china company for face masks we didn’t recieve all this and more need to be addresed, besides he is related to pelosie, his daddy and brown are kiss face buddys and too much hand waving the guy needs to put his hands down.

I am leaning towards Kevin Faulconer or Doug Ose if he had not dropped out, those two claim to want to fix the above problems.


“Kevin Faulconer”


He has no chance. Sorry you haven’t been paying attention, but the Trump-wing of the Republican Party now controls the California Republicans (who represent only about 24% of registered voters in the state anyway) and as long as that is the case, we’ll get nut jobs like Larry Elder or John Cox running against Democrats who hold positions more in line with the average voter.


Faulconer actually believes in climate change and is pro-immigration, so the Trump wing will never vote for him. That’s unfortunate because the state does need bi-partisan governance. If Elder wins, moderate Republicans (who could possibly hold statewide office) lose. Elder is a train wreck for the Republicans. If he replaces Newsom, he will face a 3/4 Democratic majority in the legislature and will face a motivated Democratic Party who will certainly unseat him next year.


The best hope for the Republicans is for Newsom to squeak by, but be badly damaged, so that a more appealing Republican—Faulconer—can run against him in 22.


OH Please… Larry Elder??!! He is so cocky he declines to even participate in any debates. Newsome may not make any California Governor’s Hall of Fame but certainly is more qualified than ANY of these rejects! Why can’t California Republicans find a quality qualified candidate? I don’t get it. I honestly want to see it. They are out there. Aren’t they?


No matter who wins, they will probably get at most 20% of the vote. The interesting thing is that if Newsom was allowed to put his name in as a replacement candidate (you know, like in an actual election), he would almost definitely get the most votes. So much for majority rule…


Newsom’s campaign failed to get his name in before the deadline….that’s kind of why he is facing a recall isn’t it?…he is inept….how do you miss that kind of important date?…


Nope, the inept person here is you because you fell for yet another outrageous lie from the radical right. Legally, it would be impossible for Newsom to list himself as a candidate. Per California Election Code § 11381(c), a person whose recall is being sought cannot be a candidate to succeed themselves at a recall election.


See for yourself: https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/elections-code/elec-sect-11381.html


First you lament that Newsom can’t be listed as a replacement for himself ,then cite the legal authority that precludes him from being listed as his own replacement. Next you suggest this isn’t an “actual election”, yet you cite the very statutes that uniquely define and codify the election as an actual RECALL ELECTION. Lastly, your declaration about Newsom “almost definitely” getting the most votes is a rather pretentious and inept assessment of the weariness the California electorate have for their radical Leftist governor.


Excellent choice Mr. Mullin. As a liberal Democrat, Elder is the best possible winner if Newsom is recalled. As the sitting governor, he would most certainly continue as the Republican favorite to get the nomination for next year’s general election—he would render more moderate, and electable candidates such as Kevin Faulconer totally mute.


You see, Elder holds positions that are exactly opposite of the average Californian—he is anti-choice, doesn’t believe climate change should be addressed, believes there should be no minimum wage and is anti-immigration. In other words, he would lose in a landslide to a possibly more progressive Democrat than Newsom in the 2022 election.


Mr. Mullin, I know your fever dream is to put a Reagan-style Republican in the governor’s office in Sacramento. But shame on you to think that a hard right-wing, Trump-loving talk-show host could ever fill Reagan’s shoes. Reagan was a man of principle who had spent years as the president of the Screen Actor’s Guild and understood the art of negotiation. Reagan would have never agreed with the intractable hogwash spewed by Trump or Trump sycophants like Elder.


But, but, he said he was black…


NEWSON is not perfect but, Overalll he does a good job

l.California Gdp is the fift in the world.

Why do you want to recall him for a yahoo ,man or woman.: this is not Texas or Florida

I voted against this recall.California is the Americain beacon for the world.I am willing to move the statue of liberty to La..


Larry Elder is a very intriguing option. I appreciate his Libertarian views. He would most certainly do a better job than Newsom.


Except that he’s a climate-change denying misogynist who spreads Covid misinformation. And has no experience. What on earth are you basing your opinion on?


sure whatever. the person is only going to warm the seat for a year anyway. doesn’t really matter.


With complete disregard of age, sex or race, any one of the three is ok with me although I still encourage to pick your with conscience.


For you moderates out there, please don’t be swaged into believing we can recall Newsome AND get a moderate replacement… this recall is run by radical right wing Trumpers and if enough of them vote to pass the recall, they will also be voting for another radical corrupt Trumper. Too much to risk… the Governor has a high chance of appointing a US Senator in the near future and if a republican is appointed it could swing the US Senate to the Republicans, Mitch McConnel would be back in charge and would continue his obstructive and destructive agenda. Don’t let that happen. NO ON RECALL. If you don’t like Newsome, support another Democrat in the next California Gubernatorial election.


nope. a simple bill to make any nom ratified by the state leg and the power is gone. veto? no problem, well over the required super majoriy to over ride the veto. the replacement will have ZERO power. so, Newsom out, great. lasting impact, not so much.


Junkster, it isn’t looking too good for you bro. There isn’t much going well at the state or the federal level these days.


Yeah, kind of a sh*tshow… it always takes a few years to repair all the damage everytime we have a republican president. Especially after the last one. Its gonna hurt for a while. I guess we will never learn.


Lol. I agree. It seems you will never learn. How many years will Newsom need to repair Schwarzenegger’s damage?


And Mr. Mullin points out Reagan as a success story of someone with no government experience that did a good job. A good job of eliminating the fairness doctrine, a good job of running up the debt, a good job of starting the biggest transfer of wealth to the top 1%, a good job of emptying the mental institutions and forcing people out onto the street. Reagan was a disaster only to be outdone by Trump. There is not enough space or time to list all of the disastrous moves that idiot did. What we need in government is competence and governmental experience which BTW is exactly what we have with Newsom. Thank God the democratic voters in this state have enough sense as to not let republicans have their way.


Oh, but Reagan’s trickle-down economics was so successful! /s/

In the 50s and 60s you could own a home, a car, support a family, and even send your kids to college. What could possibly go wrong by trusting greedy people to pass along money rather than saving it strictly for the middle-class? Oh, that’s right, just almost complete destruction of the middle-class and wealth disparity rivaling every government that was ever overthrown for being too elitist.


Still have that nasty case of TDS I see…


“WhaT cOUld go wROnG by voTinG In sOmeonE wiTH nO ExpEriEnce?” Were you asleep during the dumpster fire of the Drumpf administration? Who do you think caused so much damage?


Get off the partisan party politics train. Performance and leadership is what counts!


Yes on recall!


So replace someone you think is not doing a good job with someone who is pandering to extremist views and has no experience? What a great plan you have there.