Recall backers oppose Newsom’s ballot designation suit

Organizers of the recall campaign against Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Caitlyn Jenner campaign to replace him have filed separate motions to intervene in a case over Newsom's ballot designation for the Sept. 14 election.

The first petition, filed Tuesday on behalf of recall organizers by a legal team led by attorney general candidate Eric P. Early, alleged Newsom is seeking to violate a law he signed less than two years ago. Jenner made her announcement on Tuesday afternoon on Twitter.

Attorneys for Newsom sued Secretary of State Shirley Weber last week when they realized they forgot to write Newsom is a Democrat when they filed paperwork last year. Newsom appointed Weber, a longtime member of the state Assembly, to the job in January.Newsom v. Weber, 34-2021-80003666-CU-WM-GDS (Sac. Super. Ct., filed June 28, 2021).

Representatives for Weber and Newsom's campaign did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Reached last week, spokesman Mike Netter with the group, California Patriot Coalition-Recall Governor Gavin Newsom, said his side was not planning to intervene. But Early said they reconsidered and filed on Tuesday morning. They are seeking permissive intervention to argue Newsom missed the deadline to add his party identification to the ballot.

"Somebody's got to do a proper opposition to this effort," said the managing partner for Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP in Los Angeles. "And we did not anticipate that coming from Gavin's appointed secretary of state."

Early ran for attorney general in 2018. He finished a close fourth to Democrat Dave Jones in the primary. On June 8, Early announced he was running again, this time challenging another Newsom appointee, Attorney General Rob Bonta. Early joined a field of Republican challengers that also includes Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and Nathan J. Hochman, a partner with Browne George Ross O'Brien Annaguey & Ellis LLP in Los Angeles.

Early and his team wrote in their motion that Newsom is seeking an exception to a 2019 law he signed. Among other changes, SB 151 allowed candidates in recall elections to list their party affiliation and gave a deadline. It passed with unanimous bipartisan support. This was just one year after voters narrowly recalled Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, in a race where candidates could not list their party affiliations on the ballot.

"Newsom is the very person who signed into law the statute he now seeks to skirt. ... As his lawsuit now readily admits, Newsom failed to meet this deadline," Early wrote in the petition.

Newsom's legal team, attorneys with Olson Remcho LLP, the leading Democratic political law firm in the state, wrote in their motion they had inadvertently left off Newsom's party affiliation when they filed campaign paperwork last year.

Early's petition also cited an unsuccessful attempt by Newsom's side to reach what the motion called "a backroom deal" with Weber on June 19. This appears to be a reference to a late notice Newsom's team sent Weber asking her to identify him as a Democrat on the ballot.

In her news release, Jenner also cited SB 151 and her belief that Weber's office would not adequately defend the case. She did not identify legal counsel. Efforts to reach Jenner's campaign were unsuccessful.

"We are joining as an intervening party to ensure that there is transparency throughout this process and to highlight the likelihood of the secretary of state folding to Gavin by acquiescing to his demands," Jenner said in a news release.

The TV personality and former Olympic champion is part of a crowded Republican recall field that includes former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and John Cox, whom Newsom beat easily in the 2018 general election.

On Tuesday, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, announced he was joining the race. Kiley, an attorney, was one of the plaintiffs who convinced Sutter County Judge Sarah H. Heckman to rule that Newsom's executive order calling on all California voters to receive a mail-in ballot was illegal. The 3rd District Court of Appeals overruled Heckman in May. Newsom v. Superior Court of Sutter County, C093006 (Cal. App. 3rd, filed Nov. 16, 2020).

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James P. Arguelles will hold a hearing on the intervention motions Friday. Arguelles is the same judge who last year granted the recall organizers a 120-day extension to gather more signatures in order to qualify the recall for the ballot, citing the delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.