Democrats Try to Recall CA Speaker for Denying Vote on Single-Payer Health Care

Left-wing Democrats are attempting to mount a recall effort against California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) for preventing a vote last month on a bill to create a single-payer health care system.

Rendon denied the vote on the Healthy California Act (SB 562), backed by the California Nurses Association, because the bill provided few details about how the state would raise the $400 billion to pay for the system.

He commented at the time that although he supported single-payer in theory, “SB 562 was sent to the Assembly woefully incomplete. Even senators who voted for SB 562 noted there are potentially fatal flaws in the bill, including the fact it does not address many serious issues, such as financing, delivery of care, cost controls, or the realities of needed action by the Trump Administration and voters to make SB 562 a genuine piece of legislation.”

Rendon was targeted by protests in the days that followed, including death threats — one reportedly referencing the June shooting of several Republican congressmen at a baseball practice in Virginia, warning Rendon to “check his schedule for baseball practice.” Some accused him of killing Californians by denying the vote on single-payer care.

Now, a campaign is under way to remove Rendon from his Assembly seat, according to Southern California Public Radio. A recall would require the signatures of 20,000 registered voters in the 63rd Assembly District, which takes up a swath of Los Angeles County between downtown L.A. and Long Beach and is nearly three-fourths Hispanic.

It is unclear whether a recall would be successful, as Rendon has a large campaign war chest and the recall effort is, thus far, a grass roots effort by left-wing organizers. However, the recall effort continues the simmering “civil war” in the California Democratic Party between the left-wing “Berniecrats” and the establishment wing of the party.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.