What Went Down At The California Recall Election: Live Results

And lest we forget, this campaign was partly spearheaded by the Patriot Commission, which cited “crime rate, unaffordable housing, rampant homelessness, failing schools, irresponsible spending” in its petition for a recall, not Newsom’s handling of the pandemic.

One important aspect of COVID-19 policy debates is that they tend to be highly polarized by party, so Newsom may have been able to benefit just by taking positions aligned with the state’s Democratic-leaning electorate. On the other hand, issues like homelessness and housing affordability may not have such clear battle lines, giving Republicans an opening to challenge Newsom just on the basis that things aren’t going so well.

Something that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage in national media is the scandal over unemployment benefits in California. When the pandemic hit and millions of Californians found themselves unemployed, scammers saw an opportunity to make money by filing fraudulent claims. Once the state wised up, though, they cracked down so hard that some eligible applicants didn’t receive the benefits they were entitled to. Apart from impacting the lives of thousands of Californians, the episode has been a massive headache for Newsom. The state is still struggling to dig out from at least $11 billion, and potentially as much as $31 billion, in fraudulent claims.