What a difference the threat of a Recall election makes.

Amazing what 2,175,000 signatures on a Recall petition will do to get things done.

— Randy Economy, Sr. Advisor @ #RecallGavin2020 (@EconomyRadio) April 6, 2021

Ramping up distribution of vaccines, re-opening counties. After a year of playing dictator, Governor Hair Gel is suddenly interested in actual governance.

Too little, too late.

Well I see the latest internal recall polling is in to Gavin Newsom’s office — let’s see how well it lasts. https://t.co/SRHILVhqHK

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) April 6, 2021

I’m sure it doesn’t help that the exceptionally lame push back by Newsom and friends to #StopTheRepublicanRecall is going over as expected.

Instead of fighting COVID-19, Republicans are pulling a page from the Trump playbook and attacking Californians. The @CAGOP Republican recall will cost CA $100 million – money that could be used to help vaccinate our communities. #StopTheRepublicanRecallhttps://t.co/I8uFeGUgLK

— California Democratic Party (@CA_Dem) March 25, 2021

One op-ed writer took to The Hill to not only insult the Constitution, but California voters.

The recall is yet one more example of how well-funded political minorities can thwart democracy, gum up government and undermine confidence.

Outsized factional power has been in the spotlight lately, aimed especially at the Electoral College and Senate filibuster — two maddening methods that make it easy for minorities to circumvent majorities. The recall process is fueled by that same inflated authority, taken to an absurd extreme. (This is California, after all.)

What is absurd about counties that actually produce and mind their fiscal budgets not wanting to be overridden by the vagaries, rampant homelessness, and massive debt of Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles? “Inflated authority”? That would be Newsom’s glossy head, not the constitutional recall process.

Look at the numbers: Newsom won the 2018 gubernatorial election with nearly 62 percent of the ballot, 7.7 million votes to 4.7 million for Republican John Cox. It was the biggest victory margin for a non-incumbent here since 1930.

Newsom defenders love to toss around these numbers, but if you look at them, it does not indicate a mandate. In 2018, there were 19.6 million registered voters in California, and less than half of that number voted for Newsom. What this says is that a portion of the electorate didn’t like either candidate, and chose to sit it out.

Hopefully, they won’t make that same mistake come this Recall election. The consequences of sitting it out have played out over the last year, and it hasn’t been pretty.

But to trigger a recall, activists only have to collect valid signatures equal to 12 percent of votes cast in the 2018 governor’s race — about 1.5 million. That’s the second-lowest threshold for a gubernatorial recall in the nation, and gives an extremely small slice of the electorate a tempting opportunity to demand a do-over. To prompt a replay, organizers here just need to sign up about one-third of those comparatively few California voters who didn’t want Newsom in the first place.

"If I let you out of your homes to reopen your businesses and allow your kids back in school, can we please forget about the Recall?" – Governor Newsom pic.twitter.com/NS73E2zvHw

— Kevin Dalton (@NextLAMayor) April 6, 2021

Since he has been unable to pin the Recall on those evil Republicans, a right-wing coup, or Q-Anon, his Hairfulness is banking on a return to normalcy and short memories to cause this Recall effort to fail.

What’s that gambler phrase? When the odds are against you, never bet against the house.