Gavin Newsom can tie recall to Trump supporters in official voter guide, court says

Gov. Gavin Newsom can describe the recall as a Republican-led effort in California’s official statewide voter guide, a Sacramento judge said in a tentative ruling on Wednesday.

The decision is a win for Newsom, who for months has worked to paint the effort as a radical power grab by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Now, the governor will be able to make that argument in the voter guide, which all voters will receive ahead of the recall on Sept. 14.

Both sides of the recall were invited by the Secretary of State to submit 500-word arguments for the guide. Last week, leaders of the recall movement sued Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, saying that the governor’s argument included false statements.

Lead recall proponents Orrin Heatlie and Mike Netter challenged 10 of the 17 lines of Newsom’s voter guide argument that include statements calling the recall an “attempt by national Republicans and Trump supporters” to take power in California.

The recall advocates also asked the court to strike a line claiming Republicans are “abusing our recall laws in order to gain power and advance their partisan agenda.”

In their petition, recall organizers argue that all references to the recall being “Republican” are false and misleading because the effort is supported by Californians across the political spectrum.

In their rebuttal, Newsom’s attorneys pointed out that Heatlie and Netter themselves are registered Republicans, that the effort has the financial backing of both the state and national GOP, and that a majority of Republicans support the recall.

Superior Court Judge Laurie M. Earl agreed, and said Newsom’s argument stands.

“The court has no doubt that not all recall supporters are Republicans,” Earl wrote in her tentative ruling. “But the challenged arguments do not state or imply that they are. Instead, they refer to the recall as a ‘Republican recall’ and they refer to the recall’s ‘leaers’ or ‘leading supporters’ as Republicans.”

“As persuasively demonstrated by Gov. Newsom, the recall effort was clearly spearheaded by Republicans,” she added.

Earl said there is a distinction between including outright falsehoods in an official election document and “typical hyperbole.” Although referring to the election as a “Republican recall” may be exaggerated, it is the type of exaggeration that is “common to political debate and that is thus permissible,” she wrote.

Heatlie, with the recall committee, disagreed.

“If (Newsom) is given the ability to put political hyperbole into his statement, that’s kind of a high bar to disprove,” he said. “It’s a dangerous precedent to set, calling this recall an abuse of the recall process, because it’s absolutely not. We followed all of the rules, all of the procedures, to a T.”

Nathan Click, spokesman for Newsom’s anti-recall committee, said Californians understand this is a “Trump-fueled Republican recall,” and now a California court agrees.

“From the beginning, this recall has been a purely partisan attempt by Republicans to try to force an election and grab power because they can’t win in a normal election year,” Click said in a statement. “Californians have a clear choice when they vote by September 14 - vote no or hand the keys of state government over to Trump Republicans by voting yes.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 10:48 AM with the headline "Gavin Newsom can tie recall to Trump supporters in official voter guide, court says."