Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to deliver his primetime "State of the State" address Tuesday night in primetime from Dodger Stadium.
The location is symbolic as the stadium seats 56,000 and nearly that many Californians have died from COVID-19. The stadium is currently serving as a mass vaccination site.
The speech is expected to be sober but optimistic as the state’s outlook has improved dramatically from the beginning of the year.
The governor’s speech will be closely watched in light of the recall effort against him and comes at a critical time. Organizers of the recall effort say they have gathered nearly two million signatures as the petition deadline approaches.
The recall effort will need just shy of 1.5 million verified signatures to qualify for the ballot, and some recall supporters are already calling the signature verification process - which is standard for all ballot measures - into question.
Joshua Spivak, senior fellow with Wagner College and expert on recall elections said on KCBS Radio’s "The State of California" that this could be strategic.
"To some degree, you wonder if it is a 'working the ref' situation where they’re hoping to make clerks take a more lenient stance on some signatures rather than others," said Spivak.
He said with the COVID-19 outlook improving, Gov. Newsom could encourage people who have already signed the petition to withdraw their signatures.
"We’ve already seen it work once in Newport Beach. A councilman went out and got signatures removed, people who had signed said that they wanted their signatures taken off. He got about 215 or so and that was enough to get the recall tossed out," Spivak explained.
That could work if the margin of verified signatures is narrow.
Spivak said California is the easiest state in which to force a recall.
"California just has this (signature) requirement. Generally, it has not actually resulted in too many recalls. There have been 55 attempts and this would only be the second to get on the ballot in over a century."
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