Three weeks ago, Larry Elder was in Glendale, California sitting behind the microphone of his nationally-syndicated Salem Radio Network talk show. Upstate in Sacramento, Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was lounging with his rich liberal friends, anticipating an easy win in the September 14th recall election.
And across the country—at the governor’s mansion in Albany—Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) was happily polishing his Emmy Award and checking the mailbox for more royalty checks for his book American Crisis, which offers his “leadership lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Of course, that supposes your concept of “leadership” includes mandating that nursing homes across the Empire State be forced to accept elderly COVID-positive hospital patients into their facilities, essentially dooming them and many other residents.)
But a mere three weeks later, caretakers at the governor’s mansions in both Sacramento and Albany are quietly preparing the banker’s boxes and moving vans which will likely be needed as a result of events about to unfold in the exciting days ahead.
First in the whack-a-mole game is Cuomo, who at this point is the linear equivalent of a dead rodent in the kitchen mousetrap: the only question left is who will get tapped to go in, pick him up, and flush him down the toilet. New York’s Democratic attorney general Letitia James led a months-long investigation featuring 179 witnesses which concluded Andrew had sexually harassed at least seven current and former state employees. “Statesmen” (a/k/a weasels) from the New York Democratic Party—including Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bill DeBlasio—mugged for the cameras, throwing him overboard and calling for Cuomo to resign. Instead, the Gov sent his attorney to attack the investigation as “biased” while he relaxed by an Albany swimming pool accompanied by his pretty blonde secretary. Next stop for him? Impeachment and removal. Good riddance.CARTOONS | Steve Kelley View Cartoon
As for Gavin Newsom, his “Cinderella story” in California politics may be headed to an unhappy ending… thanks to The Sage From South Central.
Until Larry Elder tossed his hat into the race, the Recall Election—forced by 1,718,000 signatures on petitions statewide—left Newsom with little reason for concern, as he could raise unlimited amounts of cash to fight for retaining his office while “challengers” (mostly unknowns and also-rans) are limited to spending $10-million each. In expensive media markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco, $10-million would not get you very many 30-second spots in the Svengoolie monster movie show late at night on ME tv.
But suddenly, Newsom’s worst nightmare has emerged: encouraged by powerful supporters like megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs and others, Larry Elder has rocketed to the top in September 14th’s ballot. There are 46 candidates running and whichever one receives the most votes will become California’s 41st governor just 7 days after the Recall results are official.
As of now—with 23% of the vote and rising—the next governor appears to be Larry Elder. He has electrified the contest, raising $4.5-million dollars in just 19 days and eclipsing all other candidates in “earned” media: extensive free coverage in the Los Angeles Times, FOX News channel, The Wall Street Journal, TV news outlets across the state and—surprise—on Talk Radio. At every turn, he asks audiences to “toss something into the tip jar” which continues to make his newly-minted campaign coffers swell.
The Orange County Register gives plenty of credit to Elder’s incredible charisma and smooth delivery, but the newspaper also gives credit to the clumsy attempt by Newsom’s cronies in the Secretary of State’s office to block Elder from next month’s ballot. The Register suggests that clumsy and failed effort “instantly propelled him into the pole position over more traditional candidates.”
Further proof of Elder’s surging popularity came Thursday, when the Los Angeles Times reported that Governor Newsom attacked Elder during a Zoom call to volunteers. Playing the juvenile game of not actually naming his opponent (kind of like Joe Biden always referring to Donald J. Trump in terms like “the previous administration”) a panicked Newsom called “the frontrunning candidate”—a/k/a Larry Elder—a major Trump supporter, a threat to abortion rights, a climate change denier and other hackneyed props pulled from the standard hysterical Democratic Party playbook. Unfortunately, Newsom was unable to use Party Trick #1—that his opponent is “a racist”—since Larry happens to be an African-American.
Elder—whose skyrocketing chances statewide are the real reason behind Gavin Newsom’s pathetic broadsides—is already acting like a governor, ignoring Newsom’s personal attacks and sticking to the issues that actually matter to Californians.
My sources tell me Larry plans to challenge Newsom on his renewed mandates for face masks and for customers to prove vaccination before entering restaurants and concerts. If Newsom—like Joe Biden—wants to use the term “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Elder will ask why Newsom doesn’t mandate that California require production of cards with vaccine proof on one side, and Voter ID information on the other. Wrestling with why one is “racist” but the other isn’t should send Newsom spinning like that robot on the old TV show Lost In Space blaring “Danger! Danger!” with sparks flying out of his $500 haircut.
There’s still a month to go until the Recall election, and as we learned over these past three weeks, anything can happen. But the winds of change are clearly being felt across California: Saturday, the state’s Republic Party leaders opted to decline endorsing any candidate on the September 14th ballot. That decision was a blow to more “traditional” hopefuls like former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer or 2018 nominee John Cox.
But it also signaled the GOP may sense there’s a new sheriff in town, one whose command of the issues and skills as a debater might just propel him into the Governor’s office. That—as Kreskin might predict—is when the real fireworks will begin.
No comments :
Post a Comment