With 47 Candidates, California Recall Election Raises Mind-Boggling Questions

The recall election to potentially remove California Gov. Gavin Newsom from office is underway. It has been called “a barometer of the public mood heading toward the 2022 elections”—when voters across the country will decide whether to keep the current majority in Congress.

It is also a unique opportunity for Californians to elect a governor who represents Judeo-Christian values. Such an opportunity hasn’t occurred in California in many years.

Recent polls indicate that the state is evenly split over the effort to recall Newsom, with a majority of California voters still undecided. With so much up in the air, iVoterGuide has released research on all the candidates involved, providing voters with well-sourced facts about Newsom and the 46 candidates vying to succeed him as the governor of California.

Do voters agree with Newsom’s stances on abortion, his lockdown of churches, businesses and schools, support for LGBTQ policies and his views on taxes, green energy and the homeless crisis? Do some undecided voters even remember his positions? iVoterGuide provides documented reminders of his policies and executive orders, all referenced so that voters can verify for themselves.

If the vote to recall exceeds 50%, then the candidate who receives the most votes will become California’s governor until the November 2022 election. But with a jungle of 46 candidates, which one will voters choose? They come from a variety of political parties, but interestingly, neither the Democrat nor Republican parties have endorsed any single candidate. This leaves the voter with little guidance to make an informed decision, driving high voter demand for iVoterGuide’s candidate research and evaluations.

Peeling back the layers of personality, popularity and party, iVoterGuide staff aggregated research on each candidate, including links to websites and social media, ideological donations the candidate has either made or received and key endorsements.

Vote ratings based on actual actions of those who previously held public office provides voters the most solid evidence of how a candidate can be expected to wield power as governor if elected. Additionally, voters can review firsthand at ivoterguide.com the survey answers of those candidates who accepted the invitation to complete iVoterGuide’s questionnaire.

In a race with so many candidates, money raised is one measure of a candidate’s likelihood of winning. The number of campaign donors and total donations are indicators of a candidate’s ability to garner enough votes to win. For this reason, iVoterGuide lists the amount of funds each candidate had raised and reported to the California secretary of state as of Aug. 9.

The 12 candidates who raised more than $100,000 have a higher likelihood of winning and were evaluated using iVoterGuide’s distinct process and data combination. The political philosophy iVoterGuide presents on each of these 12 candidates provides voters a reasonable expectation of how each would consistently govern on a spectrum of issues if elected.

California voters hold the power between Aug. 16 and Sept. 14 to determine the course of their state and likely the nation. They can flip a coin. Or they can cast an informed vote.

iVoterGuide is here to help responsible voters better determine which candidate can be trusted with power to respect the inalienable rights that bind us together as a nation. {eoa}

Debbie Wuthnow is the president of iVoterGuide and a member of the Board of Directors. She joined iVoterGuide in 2011 as a data analyst and was named president in 2018. iVoterGuide is a one-stop resource for candidate ratings and election information. In 2020, iVoterGuide’s expert researchers gave an in-depth analysis —and overall rating— from a Christian and conservative perspective for 8000+ candidates in more than 3,300 races nationwide. Additionally, iVoterGuide offers election dates, registration deadlines, polling locations, and other information needed to help Americans vote wisely and identify candidates on the ballot who share their values.

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