#Gavin Newsom bets fear can fend off voters’ fury amid CA recall election

California’s recall election offers ordinary Californians the chance at some say in the control of their state. And that infuriates the progressive elites who run everything now. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s anti-recall fundraising is on track to hit $70 million, against just $8 million raised by the pro-recall effort. His top fundraisers include government workers (the prison-guards union and, of course, the California teachers union) — and the likes of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Indeed, all the Hollywood and Silicon Valley big shots are coming out in droves (and checks) for Newsom. 

But money and cultural influence can only get him so far: He must still clear 50 percent of the vote to keep his job; otherwise, the top vote-getter in the second half of the ballot becomes gov (which has progressives denouncing the whole process as “undemocratic”). 

And he faces an energized Republican base when grassroots Democrats are none too enthusiastic. So his campaign and its allies have gone all-out not in blaring Newsom’s supposed achievements but in screaming “racist.”

In March, Newsom labeled the recall effort “white supremacist.” His campaign website claims the drive is powered by “a partisan, Republican coalition of national Republicans, anti-vaxxers, QAnon conspiracy theorists, anti-immigrant activists, and Trump supporters.”

Then talk-radio host Larry Elder jumped into the race and quickly vaulted to top of the polls. That he’s black didn’t stop the blitz; the left simply switched to claiming, as one Los Angeles Times piece put it, “Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy.” 

Never mind that California has one of the highest unemployment rates, and Los Angeles County has the worst county-level jobless rate. Countless businesses are crippled by Newsom’s lockdown policies (even as Hollywood gets to operate unfettered). 

Never mind that Newsom’s kids got to attend in-person private school last year when California public schools remained closed. 

Never mind that Newsom dined indoors at perhaps the nation’s most expensive restaurant, unmasked in defiance of his own rules, surrounded by lobbyist pals at the height of the pandemic (“French Laundry for me but not for thee”). 

Homelessness and crime soar in major California cities, quality of life degrades, and wildfires rage — all on Newsom’s watch. 

No wonder the state is losing a House seat in the wake of the 2020 census: Progressive policies have stalled its decades-long growth, so that the rest of America is now outpacing the once-Golden State.

Struggling Californians are waking up to the hypocritical misrule of the progressive elite. But fear may triumph, if the “best people” scare enough voters into mailing in “no” ballots by Sept. 14.