As the campaigns for and against the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom enter the final stretch, both sides are upping their attacks on the front-runner candidates.
Newsom warned a Republican governor could undo California's progress fighting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic while leading Republican candidate Larry Elder's Sunday event included attacks on the governor's wife.
Elder was joined by actress Rose McGowan at a Brentwood event where the actress made serious allegations against Newsom's wife. McGowan claimed that Jennifer Lynn Siebel Newsom tried to pressure McGowan to keep quiet about her allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein.
"So when I finally got on the phone with Jennifer Siebel Newsom for what I assumed was about movie projects, imagine my surprise when she says ‘what can David Boies do to make you happy?’ I had no idea who that was, so I just said, ‘nothing.’ and hung up on her."
Boies is a well-known lawyer whose clients included Harvey Weinstein. Elder said there is a double standard with how the media portrays his campaign compared to the governor’s.
"If someone had said my significant other… called Rose McGowan and said, ‘What can we do to make you go away? What can we do to make this happy?’ it’s all you guys would be talking about between now and the end of my campaign," said Elder.
Newsom denied the allegations against his wife and decried the attacks as a “classic hit piece” in an interview with the Associated Press.
"[McGowan] has been making some pretty outrageous and absolutely foundationless accusations against my wife. That just shows you how low things go in campaigns these days," he said.
Elder also criticized Newsom’s repeated insistence that the recall election is a Republican power grab.
"Gavin Newsom has been able to switch this thing from a referendum on his behavior, his governance, into a ‘Republican takeover,’ as if that has anything to do with crime, as if that has anything to do with homelessness, as if that has anything to do with the outrageous cost of living," he said at the Sunday event.
A poll released last Friday suggested Newsom would easily beat back the recall efforts with more than 60 percent of likely voters saying they would vote against the recall. However, Elder has insinuated there could be problems with election security.
CNN reported that Elder told reporters in Los Angeles last Wednesday that he believes “there might very well be shenanigans” in the recall election. In an interview with Fox News Monday morning, Elder said, “I am worried about fraud, and we have an election integrity project all set up.”
California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber said there are no grounds for challenging the integrity of the election.
At his own Sunday campaign event in Sun Valley, Newsom warned that the recall could mean disaster for the state’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I cannot reinforce the consequences of this recall to set back California, take us off the same COVID cliff that you’ve seen in places like Texas, Florida, Mississippi and elsewhere," he said.
The governor also took aim at Elder at the Sun Valley event, saying the radio personality's politics are not aligned with Californians.
"[Elder] doesn’t believe in a minimum wage at all, doesn’t believe there should be any corporate tax, doesn’t believe in an assault weapons ban, doesn’t believe that tobacco should be regulated, doesn’t believe that a woman has the right to choose," he said.
There are 44 other candidates on the ballot, and in-person voting will continue until 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Mail-in ballots can be returned as long as they are postmarked by Sept. 14.
According to data from Political Data, Inc., more than seven million mail-in ballots have already been returned.
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