Judge: Newsom cannot be included as a Democrat on the ballot

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Judge rules California Governor Gavin Newsom cannot put his Democratic party affiliation on the ballot paper that voters see when they impeach him.

Written by DON THOMPSON Associated Press

July 13, 2021, 4:29 am

• 4 minutes to read

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Sacramento, California — California Governor Gavin Newsom can’t put his Democratic party affiliation on the ballot paper voters see when they decide whether to impeach him, a judge ruled Monday.

Newsom’s campaign missed a deadline to submit his affiliation to California Secretary of State Shirley Webber for the September 14 impeachment election. Newsom’s campaign said it was unintended and asked Webber, who had been hired by Newsom, to allow the affiliation to emerge.

She said the case should go to a judge, so Newsom sued. Newsom’s Republican opponents criticized the move as an attempt to change the rules everyone must follow.

Newsom’s election attorney Thomas Willis and Weber’s attorney argued during an hour-long hearing Friday that Newsom simply missed an arbitrary and innocuous deadline for registration and that it was in the best interests of voters to know what his party preferred.

Weber said in the court filing that adding this information now would not cause a procedural problem because election officials still had enough time to ensure that Newsom’s party preference appeared on the ballot alongside those seeking to replace it.

“Essentially, it’s down to whether the California governor has to follow the clear law — which it just so happens, a law he signed on,” replied Attorney Eric Early, who represents advocates of the subpoena including lead backers Oren Heatley and Mike Netter. California Patriots Alliance.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles said his decision Monday was due to whether there were reasons to look beyond Newsom-approved law that requires the governor to submit his party affiliation to the state’s top electoral official by February 2020.

He determined that the law “unequivocally prevents party information from appearing on a no-confidence ballot when a timely elected officer fails to make the appointment.”

It is not clear whether the absence of a particular party will have any practical effect. Newsom is well known, having held statewide office for a decade first as lieutenant governor and now as governor, and was previously mayor of San Francisco for six years.

The murky legal controversy took on a famous shine when one of Newsom’s Republican competitors, reality TV personality and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, went to Sacramento and held her campaign’s first press conference to announce her involvement in the lawsuit.

She tweeted after the ruling that she was “delighted that the rule of law prevailed” and that her joining the lawsuit “was the first step to breaking politics as usual in Sacramento where special interests and political cronies are placed above the good of the people.”

Early on he praised Argylls’ judgment, saying, “He has followed the law, and that is all we ask. No one is above the law, and this judgment makes clear that among them is Gavin Newsom.”

Newsom’s campaign spokesman Nathan Click did not respond directly to the ruling, saying in a text that Newsom would thwart the impeachment he described as a “Republican power grab.”

Previous impeachment targets were not allowed to list their political party, but Democrats who control the state legislature changed that in 2019 after a senator from their party was recalled. They argued that it gives voters important information.

Last month, Newsom signed a law changing the impeachment rules again, this time to speed up elections. Democrats believe that the state’s reopening economy and low coronavirus case numbers keep Newsom in a better position than it was when the impeachment gained momentum during the darkest days of the pandemic last winter.

The recall fueled frustration with Newsom’s coronavirus shutdown orders and anger after he learned the governor attended a party with lobbyist friends at a posh restaurant last fall when he was asking Californians to stay home.

Elections are scheduled for September 14, although ballot papers were sent to voters earlier. The two-part ballot will ask voters first if they want Newsom removed from office and, if so, who should replace him. The answers to the second question are only counted if more than 50% of people said yes to the first question.

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