Student survey shows little Samo support for Newsom recall
It has been a leading news story since the effort began in mid 2020; would Gavin Newsom be recalled or not? On Sept. 14, California got its answer. Over 60 percent of California residents voted to keep Newsom in office, while just under 40 percent voted to replace Newsom with a new candidate.
Young voters and those in Santa Monica were even more strongly opposed to removing Newsome than Californians as a whole. The percentage of voters opposing the recall in Santa Monica precincts ranged from 74 percent to 86 percent. Similarly, approximately 76 percent of voters between the ages of 18 through 34 opposed the recall, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A poll of 190 Samo students conducted after the election indicated that nearly 70 percent of students would have voted not to recall Newson, 20 percent of students would vote to recall Newsom, and 10 percent were unsure. 13 percent of students responding to the survey were not aware that the recall election was taking place. The poll correlated to the city of Santa Monica’s election results, but proved more democratic than the state of California’s results.
Claire Kovac (’23), though not old enough to vote, is representative of the views of most Santa Monica High School students and Santa Monica voters when it comes to her views about the recall.
“I think the idea of recalls should be completely eliminated. It wasted us millions of dollars, and so many of the people who were running weren’t even serious candidates,” Kovac said.
So why did California citizens want Newsom to be recalled in the first place? Conservative activists initiated the recall effort shortly after Newsom’s inauguration, but it did not gain traction until the COVID-19 pandemic swept the state. These activists attempted to capitalize on public dissatisfaction with the shutdowns of schools and businesses that were ordered by Newsom as part of an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19. Public opinion of Newsom also took a nosedive after he was spotted dining maskless at the upscale French Laundry at a time when he was urging Californians not to gather in groups. These events helped recall proponents obtain the 1.5 million signatures necessary for the recall to be placed on the ballot.
Will Spotts (’23) is one Samo student who was in favor of the recall effort.
“Governor Newsom has shown himself to be everything but an honest man. During the pandemic, he closed all the schools but the one his children attended, shut down all the restaurants but the one he ate it, and mandated masks and social distancing for all but him and his inner circle. If anything, the recall effort materialized as a well-reasoned attempt to expose the governor’s utter and blatant hypocrisy,” Spotts said.
Had Newsom lost the recall with a less than 50 percent majority, the candidate with the most votes on the second question on the ballot (which asked voters to choose a candidate to potentially replace Newsom if the recall effort succeeded) would have taken governorship, even if they received fewer votes than Newsom. The candidate to replace Newsom would have been Republican talk show host, Larry Elder, who received 46 percent of the votes on the second question. Elder made allusions to a rigged vote on the day before the election, but such talk quieted down as the decisive nature of Newsom’s victory became clear.
Although Newsom has won the recall election, his challenges are just beginning, as California faces multiple crises that he must attempt to confront. Newsom must continue to lead a state facing droughts, a continuing battle with COVID-19, homelessness and countless wildfires.
