Retaliation, Thy Name Is Josh Newman

This is why some people should never be anywhere near public office. California State Senator Josh Newman (D-Full Of It) is one of those people.

@JoshNewmanCA This is your bill #SB663 What the heck are you thinking? I don’t think you represent freedom whatsoever. https://t.co/UJKZ5rhSa3

— Michél (@maybe19) April 10, 2021

Newman was the target of a successful recall in 2018, because he voted for an unpopular gas tax which added an additional 12 cents-a-gallon plus at least $50.00 per car in registration fees. I was right pissed, and I wasn’t even in his district. Then-Governor Jerry Brown subsequently signed it into law, and we’ve been saddled with it ever since. I pay close to $200.00 of registration on my 15-year-old SUV—thank you, Josh!

In the hybrid district he served (Los Angeles and Orange Counties), a Democrat voting to hike gas and registration prices in already pricey California was not the way his constituents wanted him to vote; so the California GOP, who was less feckless then, helped the voters to remove him.

From a CalMatters piece during that 2018 recall process:

“One of the reasons I ran in the first place is because I think that people deserve a better politics…less partisanship and less baloney,” said the Democratic state senator from Orange County who was narrowly elected for the first time in 2016. “I never thought I’d be in this position—that I’d be the poster boy for what’s wrong with California politics.”

And yet here he is, fighting for his very brief political life.

At stake in a California recall race is more than the short tenure of a state lawmaker. The fate of Sen. Josh Newman will provide an object lesson to politicians of all stripes on what happens to vulnerable politicians who take controversial votes—and how well parties and other interest groups can (or can’t) protect them from ticked off voters.

In a rare instance, the ticked-off voters won. Yet these same good people of District 29 (all or parts of the cities of Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Chino Hills, City of Industry, Cypress, Diamond Bar, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia, Rowland Heights, Stanton, Walnut, West Covina and Yorba Linda) felt the need to re-elect Newman in 2020.

Now, Sen. Newman is spitting on his constituents once again with his new set of bills, most notably SB 663:

Kinda funny how Josh Newman got elected narrowly in 2016 only to be successfully recalled in 2018 only to win by an even larger margin in 2020

— We Want Gore (@we_want_gore) April 13, 2021

Under current California law [Elections Code Section 103 (2)], individuals who have signed a recall petition have the right to have their signature withdrawn by written request. What SB 663 seeks to do is disclose to the target of the Recall the name, address, and contact information of the signatory, as well as to any “entity with whom the target or the target’s designated representatives have contracted to provide mass mailing or telephone or electronic media communications using mass distribution technology.”

This is straight-up retaliation and sour grapes. I’m getting warm to the idea of making people running for office take psychological tests, because this type of psychology (punish the people you supposedly represent) shouldn’t be allowed in an elected official.

District 29, this is two strikes. You see where the first two times got you—do better.

Got that? We the People have been intentionally excluded from the development and passage of legislation that affects us all. Please see the latest two assaults on the People: SB660 and SB663.

— Jen Revere #PauseProp19 🇺🇸 (@JenRevere) April 13, 2021

Regarding SB 663, the Orange County Register reported:

Some of the first legislation State Sen. Josh Newman has authored since being elected back to the 29th District seat is about tightening the recall process, with twin bills that would remove financial incentives for paid signature gatherers and another to give recall targets a new way to fight back.

It’s not surprising. Newman, D-Fullerton, was recalled in 2018, the first State Senator in California to be pushed from office in that manner in more than a century.

“Most elected people don’t think much about the prospect of being recalled. Every time another one happens, there’s general agreement, ‘That’s not what people had in mind when they created this process.’ But once it’s over, we move on,” Newman said.

This is a flat-out lie, because had he moved on, he would not be focusing on this. You have a state that is drowning in fraud, record unemployment, and record homelessness. Basically, what Newman is showing us is that a) you really don’t like the people who elected you; b) you have no respect for those people and their right to elect or recall whom they choose; c) you’re mad because those same people exercised their Constitutional rights.

“I think it’s appropriate that we revisit these institutions and make sure they are still working the way they were originally intended,” he added.

Sure, Jan.

How many successful Recalls have happened in California? From the Secretary of State’s website:

Since 1913, there have been 179 recall attempts of state elected officials in California. Ten recall efforts collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot and of those, the elected official was recalled in six instances.

Six instances out of 179, in a 108-year period. That doesn’t sound like a broken process or an abuse of it. The fact that recalls are not easy matters is what makes a successful one so unprecedented.

Shoutout to Recall Gavin 2020 and Rescue California 2021.

As our Managing Editor, Jennifer Van Laar said, the bill’s sole goal is to intimidate, as well as seek to re-educate those who do not OBEY.

Now Newman is back in the State Senate and has sponsored legislation that would allow politicians targeted by a recall to get a copy of the petition – including the names of everyone who signed it and their contact information.

Why would they need that?

Newman believes people who signed a recall petition against him were given false information about what they were signing and that he should have had an opportunity to correct that. He told the Orange County Register:

Newman said petition gatherers in his recall asked prospective signers, ”’Are you mad about this gas tax? Sign this petition.’ They didn’t tell them that the actual text of the petition was about recalling an elected state senator.”

Since recall petitions aren’t public records, Newman said his team had no way to try to track down voters who’d signed the petition to make sure make sure they understood what they were signing.

In other words, you’re much too stupid to really understand what you’re signing, so we have to protect you!

And, as he also said in a committee hearing in Sacramento Monday:

“From my view a recall is, in effect, trial by ballot. And you should be able to face your accusers.”

You face your accusers every time one of your constituents calls, writes, or comes by your office to lodge their displeasure. There is no mystery as to who is signing, just Democrat’s deluded fantasies that anyone who would oppose them must be really dumb, or a crazy right-winger/Republican.

But in Newman’s mind, when a registered voter signs a petition seeking the recall of an elected official, that’s an act of advocacy that should be reportable.

Our video guru Brandon Morse laid it plain about California Democrats. They think they are above everyone else, that you the voter are stupid, and that they can take any means necessary to maintain power.