California State Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who was recalled in 2018 but reelected in 2020, has dropped an effort to pass a bill that would reveal the names of voters who sign recall petitions.
The Associated Press reported:
State Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat, said Tuesday he’s pulling the bill due to pressure from supporters of a likely recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat. Newman’s bill would not have applied to the anti-Newsom effort, but that movement’s supporters vehemently opposed it, saying it would violate citizen privacy and intimidate voters.
“The environment is so charged around the recall that it made it hard to have a thoughtful discussion around this bill,” Newman said.
Critics said that Newman was attempting to protect political incumbents by allowing them to “dox” their opponents.
Democrats had already changed many state laws about recall elections in an unsuccessful attempt to protect Newman from recall in 2018, after he cast an unpopular vote to raise the gas tax in the state.
As Breitbart News noted in 2017:
Democrats have attempted to obstruct, delay and rig the recall election by any means necessary — including sneaking an amendment into the state’s budget bill to delay the election until November 2018, which was later struck down by a judge.
Later the state’s Democrat-controlled ethics watchdog panel voted to allow elected officials to transfer unlimited amounts from their massive war chests to Newman’s recall defense.
Democrats did succeed in delaying Newman’s recall election until the California primary election in 2018. He lost and was replaced by Republican Ling Ling Chang.
He regained his seat again thanks to strong Democrat turnout in the area during the 2020 presidential election, when Republicans won several congressional seats elsewhere in the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a likely recall election later this year.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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