Final ruling: Newsom may blame recall of ‘Trump supporters’

A Sacramento judge on Thursday refused to block Gov. Gavin Newsom from telling voters the September 14 recall election was held by “Republicans and Trump supporters.”

In a final ruling, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl said Newsom’s proposed statement for the voter information manual did not violate election law. She came to the same conclusion in an earlier interim decision before a hearing.

“The Court concludes that there is nothing false or misleading in describing the leaders of the recall effort as supporters of Trump,” Earl wrote.

Recall leaders have accused in a lawsuit that Newsom was lying in his voting statement because not all of the recall supporters and candidates vying to replace Newsom were not Republicans.

In a hearing Thursday, supporters of the recall also claimed Newsom lied when he said they were “abusing our recall laws.”

Earl disagreed, saying there was “an argument that this recall is an abuse of a perfectly legal process.”

“The recall comes less than three years after a large majority of California voters elected the governor of Newsom,” she noted.

Reasonable minds may disagree on the merits of the recall, she said, but Newsom’s statement fell within the realm of legitimate political debate.

Opponents of Newsom gathered enough signatures to force the recall vote. A poll last month found voters were almost equally divided over whether to remove Newsom. Participation should be the key.