How We’ll Win the Recall

I started this Capitol Quagmire blog almost a year ago. Of the 60,000 people who’ve subscribed, many are Republicans. Many are also Democrats or Independents. I just received a contribution from a woman who’s made one other political donation in her life – to Bernie Sanders.

What’s striking is that such a diverse readership can agree on so much: That California needs fundamental change. That corruption is ruining our state. That Gavin Newsom embodies all that is wrong with politics.

This agreement, it turns out, extends to the entire California electorate: 68 percent identify as middle-of-the-road or conservative. 58.3 percent want to ditch Newsom by at least 2022. 63 percent say their kids will be worse off than they are. 53 percent are thinking of moving out.

What’s even more telling, in recent PPIC and Berkeley IGS surveys, is the level of agreement on specific issues:

• 87 percent of Californians say the quality of education is a problem and 90 percent think we need changes; just 31 percent think Newsom is doing a good job.
• 90 percent say housing affordability is a big problem; a mere 13 percent say Newsom is doing a good job.
• Homelessness is seen as the state’s biggest problem, and only 13 percent say Newsom is doing a good job; 57 percent say he’s doing a poor job.
• 81 percent say taxes are too high and 78 percent say this is driving businesses and people out of the state.
• 82 percent say poverty is a problem and only 3 percent say the gap between rich and poor is narrowing.
• 87 percent and 81 percent say wildfires and the water supply are problems; Newsom’s approval is underwater on both issues.

In short, everyone agrees on the problems. What not everyone realizes is these problems have the same underlying cause: political corruption.

Our Capitol is completely run by Special Interests that use the powers and revenues of government to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. Politicians like Newsom simply do as they instruct.

Because California’s problems share this common cause, they cry out for the same solution: restoring integrity to public life. This is the only remedy to bring our ailing body politic back to health.

A winning Recall campaign will be about one thing and about everything: ending corruption and restoring good government. It will focus the public attention while broadening the public imagination: removing America’s worst governor and unleashing the full potential of its greatest state.

This is why I decided to become the only California politician to refuse all funding from Special Interests – hundreds of thousands of dollars every election. I saw how that easy money has destroyed integrity in government. And no one gets more of it, or is more corrupted by it, than Gavin Newsom.

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