What Went Down At The California Recall Election: Live Results

It does seem like the recall, at least for a while, was how some voters projected their frustration with the state’s very real issues onto California’s top leader. Everything is extreme in California these days, from the weather to the cost of housing, and it’s understandable that residents would be looking for someone to blame. Maybe Newsom brought some of this on himself by overpromising when it came to issues like housing reform — but I wonder if some Californians have also realized that Newsom’s potential replacements don’t have easy fixes for these problems, either, because no one does!

As Nathaniel mentioned, Newsom’s handling of the pandemic has certainly played a role in Californians wanting to oust him from office, but it’s hardly the only reason for the recall effort. In fact, when the race was heating up in July, we noted that according to a poll from the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, Newsom’s biggest liability wasn’t his handling of the pandemic but rather his handling of many of the state’s long-standing problems, like homelessness, income inequality and wildfires. How have these issues factored into the race? And why are they such a political problem for politicians in the state?

For many, living in California is becoming an increasingly unattainable dream. The median price for a single-family home in the state hit $818,260 earlier this year, and according to a 2020 report on homelessness, California accounted for about half of all of the unsheltered people in the United States last year. Not coincidentally, California’s population actually declined in 2020 — a trend fueled at least in part by residents moving to other states for more affordable housing. The Californians who remain in the state see housing costs and homelessness as key issues to resolve, and Newsom’s rivals have said his approach isn’t working.

Newsom, of course, didn’t create California’s housing crisis — and it’s hard to see how he can fix it. It’s a problem that stems from slow building and decades-old zoning decisions that have made it impossible to create enough housing to meet demand. Much of the problem is local, hindering any comprehensive statewide solution, and California lawmakers are deeply divided over what they think is the right way forward. Nonetheless, Newsom made addressing housing issues a central goal of his administration — and some frustrated voters may be blaming him all the same.