The Los Angeles Times editorial board warned Friday that recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) would be a “disaster.”

In an editorial, the paper urged readers to vote “no” on the first ballot question — whether to remove Newsom from office:

Removing Newsom and replacing him with an untested and unprepared alternative who wouldn’t represent the values of most Californians would be a disaster. It would doom the state to months of political and bureaucratic dysfunction and economic uncertainty. And for what purpose?

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These are things that voters would appropriately consider during a regular reelection campaign, but they do not justify using the extraordinary power of recall to remove a legitimately elected governor in favor of someone who may only have a sliver of support from voters. Indeed, by our reckoning, Newsom’s missteps are minor when compared to the good he has done for California as one of the nation’s strongest leaders on the COVID-19 pandemic. In our hyperpolarized time, sadly, decisive leadership has also enraged and galvanized the governor’s critics.

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The 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom — most of them men, most of them Republican, and most of them utterly unqualified — offer an endless litany of grievances that are little more than objections to his liberal policies — policies, we may add, that were clear to everyone when 62% of voters chose Newsom in the 2018 election. The whole thing would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high.

The editorial goes on to claim that Newsom “inherited” the state’s problems from his predecessor, fellow Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown (whom the Times endorsed in both 2010 and 2014). Newsom was lieutenant governor during that time.

Contrary to Newsom’s own advice, the Times urged readers to choose an alternative candidate among “terrible choices” on the second ballot question: former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican.

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder leads most polls. The election date is Sep. 14, but ballots have already started arriving at the homes of registered voters.

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 new e-book, We Told You So!: The First 100 Days of Joe Biden’s Radical Presidency. 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.