With its March 17 deadline approaching, the campaign to oust California Gov. Gavin Newsom is fewer than 60,000 signatures short of triggering an election, officials say.
“The bottom line is we have been underestimated and discounted from day one, yet we are within 58,000 valid signatures of qualifying the recall, with plenty of time left in the process,” Rescue California campaign manager Anne Hyde Dunsmore said in a Feb. 19 press release.
“Nothing can stop this citizen movement to replace Gavin Newsom with a new governor capable of leading this state.”
As of Feb. 19, about 1.72 million signatures were collected, and the secretary of state is showing 83.7 percent validity, Dunsmore said.
If the calculations are correct, it means 1,437,983 verified signatures have been collected, 57,726 shy of the 1,495,709 verified signature mark needed to initiate a recall.
A surge in signatures came as Republicans continued to financially back the campaign.
The Republican National Committee earlier this month contributed $250,000 to the cause. Half of the money was allocated to Rescue California, which it put toward signature gathering, organizers said Feb. 13.
“We were thrilled to learn that Rescue California had deployed signature gatherers,” said Orrin Heatlie, chairman of the original committee Recall Gavin 2020, said in a press release.
“My volunteers are thrilled that everything that can be done is being done to successfully finish the effort we started nearly a year ago.”
Meanwhile, another $100,000 contribution was made to Rescue California by the political action committee (PAC) of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican. The PAC money arrived via a $25,000 donation on Feb. 4, followed by a larger $75,000 donation on Feb. 12, Rescue California campaign manager Dunsmore told The Epoch Times.
