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Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass toured damage to the 10 Freeway in November 2023. | Photo courtesy of California Governor/Facebook
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Mayor Karen Bass Monday slammed Republican recall efforts against Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars and valuable time.
“Gov. Newsom has delivered countless times for Los Angeles over just the past year helping us address the homelessness crisis, rebuild after the 10 freeway fire and recover from recent storms,” Bass said in a statement.
She added, “Republican recalls do nothing more than waste taxpayer dollars and valuable time when we need to be prioritizing these important issues.”
A group of California conservative activists launched their effort Monday morning, which represents the fifth attempt to remove him from office.
On their website, organizers with Rescue California wrote that Newsom has abandoned the state to “advance his Presidential ambitions,” leaving behind a $68 billion budget deficit and a “public safety, immigration and education crisis.”
Rescue California also criticized that Newsom approved legislation providing some 700,00 immigrants free health care at “a cost to taxpayers of $3 billion annually.” The group additionally challenged Newsom’s decision to keep school closed during the first years of the coronavirus pandemic, and spent billions on government homeless programs that they say have failed repeatedly.
The same group led a 2021 recall effort that made it to the ballot, however, Newsom overcame that recall effort by a 23-point margin over conservative radio host Larry Elder.
“We did it before. We will do it again,” Rescue California wrote in a Facebook post Monday.
Mayor Karen Bass noted that this was the same group that tried to prevent Californians from getting vaccinated from COVID-19.
“…They were wrong then for attempting to recall the governor and are wrong now,” Bass said in her statement. “We beat them last time, and we’ll be them again.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Newsom called out the recall effort.
“Trump Republicans are launching another wasteful recall campaign to distract us from the existential fight for democracy and reproductive freedom,” Newsom wrote on social media. “We will defeat them.”
The group will need about 1.38 million verified signatures by May for their recall effort to qualify for the November ballot.
