California Governor Recall Election: Art of the Steal

Should the “No” vote win, the top candidates to replace Newsom will be Republicans – proving it even safer to say this is a Republican recall. And with these Republican candidates being mostly Trump Republicans, it becomes clearer this recall is being pushed by Trump Republicans. 

Former President Donald Trump was once developer Donald Trump, developing, building and selling office and housing towers, some failed casinos, a scrapped project in Baja California, and so on. Trump shared his sales techniques in his book, Art of the Deal.  

These deals are long term projects. 

Land is scoped for feasibility for development, then purchased. Plans are drawn for the buildings, architects hired, building contractors hired. Then there is the sales pitch during development which is a long-term project. 

To make the deal, the sales pitch for the project is to hype it as a special place to live or work or play. It is calculated on what to say, how to say it, and when. Things are carefully planned, and the process takes time. In a deal, timing is very important. 

Trump used this long-term hype of a sell when running for reelection when it became clear, as he clearly stated, that if the Democrats turn out to vote, he would lose. It was a simple equation of more Democrats than Republicans as possible voters. 

In early 2020 Trump began his campaign to sow doubt in the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. It was a constant sales pitch. The corporate sales pitch to sell his developments was transferred to the election, and his followers, elected officials, those running for office, supporters, then became part of the sales team. 

Despite this constant sales pitch of a crooked election, Trump lost to Joe Biden.  

Then came Phase II of the sale pitch, post-election, which was continuing to cast doubts on the validity of the 2020 election. The overall sales pitch from Trump and his followers was “Stop the Steal.”  

What Trump has been trying to do is steal back the presidency he lost, without presenting any proof the election was rigged. His lawsuits to overturn the 2020 have not held merit, and court after court has rejected his claims. 

This has not stopped him, and he continues to try to steal back the presidency with his Art of the Steal, using the same sales techniques he used for his developments. 

Trump remains a power in the Republican Party, and his Art of the Steal techniques are found in the recall attempt of Governor Newsom. 

One of the techniques is to cast doubts on the integrity of a process, and a person. The attacks on Newsom suit this. And one of the top Republican candidates is very capable of shouting rhetoric to discredit Newsom’s character and actions as governor. It is the method of innuendo which Trump so liked to use: “I heard. . .” “That is not what I heard. . .’’  Conjecture without proof. 

Indeed, Newsom did stupid things, like his dinner at the French Laundry restaurant, with one of his top supporters, all maskless, while we were told to wear masks. I wear masks everywhere I go, and this was insulting and stupid, but not worthy of recall. 

If so, then the Republicans must also go after and recall Texas Senator Ted Cruz who, while his state’s people were suffering from freezing weather, and lack of electricity to heat their homes because Texas refuses to tap into the nation’s power grid, fled the country to vacation, maskless, in Mexico. Cruz blamed this on his wife and children who wanted to get out of Texas. At least Newsom spent his money not only within the United States, but within California, and he took sole blame for his blunder. 

Republicans, the California Recall supporters, state Newsom’s COVID and mask wearing mandates are tyranny and worthy of recall. Then the Republicans must also recall at least those governors and state legislatures who mandate no mask wearing, most notable Governors Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida.  

The health scientists and medical community remain steadfast that the best way, perhaps the only way, to defeat COVID and get back to our lives is to get vaccinated, and wear face masks. 

Now that the recall election is formerly in progress with ballots mailed, the Art of the Steal has begun with the campaign of trying to cast doubt on the integrity of the ballots themselves. TV news broadcasts pick up individuals, so far mostly women, to counter the Democrats women driven no recall adds, with the same story, passed around from the Republican playbook. Now social media is being flooded in what seems like a well-organized campaign to cast doubt about the ballot envelopes. 

The envelopes to return the ballots have holes punched in them to make certain that the election and poll workers can quickly make certain that the envelope has a ballot inside or to get an accurate account with all ballots counted. 

These types of envelopes with holes are the industry standard, used for years without question. But now, with Art of the Steal, a concerted campaign is now trying to cast doubts on the validity of the envelopes, and hence the validity of the entire recall election. 

First this questioning of the envelopes came from supposedly everyday people, or lower-level sales force. Now former Trump administration people, higher level sales force, are making the same accusation to raise questions about the envelopes, and then the election. 

Like a development’s long-range sales campaign, and like Trump’s continuing efforts to steal back the presidency, should Newsom survive the recall, there will be immediate accusations of fraud and rigged elections, following the earlier weeks of the Art of the Steal sales campaign.  

Then, like Trump’s efforts, there will be a series of Republican brought lawsuits questioning the validity of the election. 

Because the California courts are underfunded, these lawsuits could take months to go through the court system. It could take so long that they could extend into and past the next gubernatorial election November 8, 2022, which is the time when the Republicans should have focused their campaign to elect the next governor, Newsom or not. 

Instead, we the people of California, the taxpayers, will pay nearly $300 million to go through an attempted Art of the Steal. 

(Matthew Hetz is a Los Angeles native. He is a transit rider and advocate, a composer, music instructor, and former member and president and executive director of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra. He is a CityWatch contributor.) Image: ActBlue. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.