Dana Perino: 'Newsom only made personal attacks, Elder made policy attacks'
'The Five' discusses California's recall election with Governor Gavin Newsom and Larry Elder
For all the national noise being made over the California recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom, here on the ground in San Francisco it feels like a very sleepy race.
The airwaves are not plastered with ads just six days before the election. There are no signs to be found, no volunteers handing out voter materials. The contest is not on the lips of patrons of bars and restaurants.
On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris came to San Francisco to campaign for the embattled governor. Since I was in San Francisco the night before and morning of her appearance, I thought maybe I’d go if I was close to the event.
It was actually difficult online to determine where it would be. That’s curious since generally one wants people to know where a political rally is so they can come.
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The small gathering that Harris and Newsom eventually had seemed made for TV not for live voters, or potentially, live protesters.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the state things were getting weird as Newsom’s main opponent, radio talk show host Larry Elder was accosted by someone wearing a gorilla mask who threw eggs at him.
To absolutely nobody’s surprise our brave mainstream media has not jumped on the incident.
Had Elder, who is Black, been a Democrat attacked by a Trump supporter in a gorilla mask then Donald Trump would be being impeached again, but Elder is just a conservative.
Maybe it is time for Newsom to denounce his supporters’ claims that Elder is the black face of white supremacy.
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For some voters it’s not that they don’t care, it’s that they just aren’t very optimistic.
Riohoann was the other smoker staying at my hotel and we had several conversations. She is from Santa Cruz and was in town doing research at City Hall into a mystery at an old mansion there.
She hates Newsom. She also hates Donald Trump, and she and her husband biked up to Sturgis this year. Yet another California voter who can’t be neatly packaged.
"I think he hangs on," she told me, "people would rather stick with the devil they know."
She expressed a general frustration with government that seemed to defy party or ideology. "It’s the big businesses that control it anyway," she quipped. At least in Rionoann’s case, that sense that it won’t matter much either way could play into Newsom’s favor.
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The "No" campaign seems to be trying to a walk a tightrope between getting out the vote they need on the one hand to defeat Newsom’s recall and not looking scared or vulnerable on the other. Polls show support for the governor is rising but he is not acting like someone who is confident he is keeping his job.
But for the recall to win, its supporters will have to muster the troops in more purple districts of the Golden State.
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Organization in the Central Valley, home to some GOP congressional districts, including that of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy could be essential to a victory.
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It won’t be San Francisco that kicks out Gavin Newsom, they created him after all. Though honestly I didn’t see much there to be grateful to him for.
So it’s off to Modesto. Away from the big city. What will voters of the other California make of the final days of recall madness?
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