With Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom facing a fight for his political life in next month’s recall election, liberals are trying to frame the vote as a referendum on abortion in hopes of boosting Democratic support for Newsom.
According to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, support for recalling Newsom is narrowly ahead of keeping the Democratic leader whose COVID-19 lockdown policies of last year triggered the effort to oust him.
The average of polls puts support for removing Newsom at 48 percent, with support for keeping him at 47.5 percent.
Although California Democrats outnumber Republicans, a recent CBS/YouGov poll showed that while 72 percent of Republican voters said they were “very motivated” to vote in the recall, only 61 percent of Democrats had that level of motivation.
In an effort to motivate Democrats, Newsom and pro-abortion groups are claiming that dumping the incumbent would vastly infringe on the ability of California’s women to kill their babies, according to Politico.
Planned Parenthood and NARAL are joining with Newsom in hopes of scaring liberals to vote to keep Newsom, who is also pushing the abortion button in hopes of planting fear in the hearts of liberals.
“The governor has the line-item veto,” he said recently. “You can literally draw a line and cut these issues out. You have the power of appointments. I mean think of how you can weaponize that.”
“This is all hands on deck,” said Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California, who heads the group Women Against the Recall and leads the Pro-Choice Caucus in Congress. “California is a progressive state, but only if people turn out.”
The Democratic hoopla is not aligned with reality, given that the legislature in California is solidly Democratic.
“Pro-life voters, I think at this point, are fairly resigned to the fact there’s really not much that could be done in a state like California with a Republican governor, given the Legislature,” GOP strategist Rob Stutzman said. “If they thought they could find an advantage there, I think they’d be talking about it.”
Laurie Sobel, an attorney and associate director of women’s health policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, said a Republican governor could try to limit funding that now supports abortion.
“It’s more of these issues around funding that the governor could have power over, rather than the fundamental right to abortion,” she said.
Abortion advocates are also sounding the alarm over what could happen if Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein were to retire, leaving the vacancy to be filled by a Republican governor.
“The reality is if we have a Republican in the governor’s mansion and something, God forbid, were to happen to our sitting state senator, Dianne Feinstein, and we were to have a governor then appoint that position, it could be Georgia who helped us win the U.S. Senate and California somehow that helps us lose the U.S. Senate,” said Shannon Olivieri Hovis, the director of NARAL Pro-Choice California.
“We need to not take anything for granted as it relates to California’s leadership and the impact that California has across this nation.”
Ballots have already been mailed to California voters for the Sept. 14 election.
The election has two questions. One asks voters if they want to dump Newsom. The other asks who voters would want to replace him.
Conservative talk show host Larry Elder, a Republican, currently tops the list of those seeking to replace Newsom should a majority call for a new governor, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.