California Governor Gavin Newsom is staring down the barrel of a recall election and, as it gets closer and closer to becoming a reality, Democrats are beginning to voice their concerns about what was Newsom’s plan during the pandemic while still retaining an air of loyalty to him.

Democrat officials like Assemblywoman Laura Friedman told the LA Times that Newsom didn’t do a very good job of keeping people informed about the decisions behind his lockdown.

“I would have loved to have a better understanding of the rationale behind a lot of these decisions and the data behind them, and I think the public should know that data as well,” Friedman said. “It would make people feel much more comfortable with the different executive actions that are handed down and the different orders. I would have loved it if months back, we really understood what was coming and that the public understood a little bit more.”

Former director of the California Department of Public Health Karen Smith also criticized Newsom for his lack of transparency when making decisions about the lockdown.

“This guy’s worst problems, even including politically, come from the fact that they just don’t communicate well and they certainly don’t take the time to communicate in a way that introduces people to something, gives them more information, and then you effectuate it,” Smith said. “It’s crazy, because that’s sort of basic and how you talk to people when you want to get them on your side.”

According to KTLA-TV, vice president and political director of SEIU United Services Workers West, Sandra Diaz, was way more on the nose with her criticism after Newsom’s administration put essential workers at the back of the line on vaccine prioritization.

“It’s like he’s putting us out to die,” she said.

She added what sounded like an underlying threat to Newsom.

“It’s more important for us as a union to see this get better, no matter who that upsets,” she said.

It’s interesting that these Democrats are speaking up in criticism of Newsom’s lockdown strategy now that he’s under threat of losing his job. It’s likely that many Democrats don’t want to be lumped into the blame for California’s catastrophic failure brought upon Californians by Newsom’s decisions. While not outright coming out against the lockdown, they’re taking the much safer route of merely questioning his lack of transparency…at least for now.

As the recall becomes more likely and if it begins to look like it would be entirely successful, you can expect many California Democrat party officials to become a lot more intense and complete in their criticism. Newsom’s allies will become few and far between, and many with gubernatorial aspirations will likely begin using him as a whipping boy and blaming him for all of California’s woes.

For now, however, Democrats will play it safe and merely kindly criticize him, but rest assured, this kindness will disappear in the span of a few weeks should this recall become more threatening.