No on the CA recall
Governor Gavin Newsom has been fighting for LGBTQ rights since at least 2004 when he started same-gender weddings in San Francisco even before the state or U.S. Supreme Court. He is serious about fighting the climate disaster literally enveloping California, and leads science-based life-saving approaches to COVID.
But none of that is the point.
I believe that beating this Republican recall election will be decided less by ideological arguments, and more by interrupting our California habit of setting aside long ballots to research, and substituting this time a different imperative to vote fast. I just need to vote No on the first question against the recall of our elected governor, making the only other question on the ballot irrelevant, and most importantly mail my ballot back immediately.
The only other thing I suggest doing is to widely post or circulate a photo of you mailing your ballot to build the excitement of voting now.
Otherwise one of the 40-some Republicans, independents, and unserious Democrats running will immediately become our next governor; i.e., there are no reasonable alternatives to beating the first question.
Finally, mailing your ballot back promptly updates public voting records immediately so volunteers can focus on calling, texting, and mailing prospective voters, other than you.
Charlie Spiegel, Esq.
San Francisco
Being governor is not a gift
I just read the editorial "Vote no on Newsom recall" in the B.A.R. [August 12] and I'll tell you this: I will vote. The matter is: we vote to recall for a better life. What has Gavin Newsom done for California and for San Francisco in particular? Nothing. Did he build affordable houses for citizens of our city and for retired gays in our community? Did he make our life better? Did he provide our people life expectancy higher than we have for today? No. I just want to remind that to be a governor is not a gift from voters. To be a governor is trust of the people who were voting for him to make our life better, including myself. I don't care who will govern California — Democrat or Republican — but I care who will do something to make our life better than we have today. California has high crime, high taxes, expensive living, homelessness, and so on. So, I will vote and I ask that you do too.
Georgy Prodorov
San Francisco
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