(CN) --- California Assembly member Kevin Kiley officially announced his bid to replace Governor Gavin Newsom should the recall election slated for Sept. 14 prove to upend Newsom's political career.
Kiley, a frequent and acerbic critic of Newsom and his restrictive approach to the coronavirus pandemic, will vie with a crowded field of challengers to replace Newsom should Californians choose to recall him later this summer.
“I can’t tell you how much all of your encouragement has meant to me,” Kiley wrote in an announcement published Tuesday afternoon. “Over the next 70 days, I’ll fight in every way I can to get our movement across the finish line.”
Polls so far have shown that outcome unlikely, as a majority of Californians continue to approve of Newsom's overall job performance and his handling of the pandemic in the deep blue state.
Kiley is a prominent Republican in a state where such a thing is a scarcity and hopes his conservative bona fides combined with a more moderate rhetorical posture in the age of Donald Trump will convince enough Californians to give the GOP another try.
Kiley said he is hoping his announcement will anoint him as the front-runner and throw the rest of the GOP challengers in the shade as the date for the recall election nears.
“With a strong initial showing, we can unify support,” Kiley said Tuesday. “That will help prevent the field from fracturing and splitting the vote.”
Until now, the most prominent Republican to enter the fray was former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, another moderate looking to follow the path set by Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who all won statewide races in blue states. A Republican hasn’t won a statewide office in California since 2006.
But the 36-year-old Kiley, who represents the suburbs of Sacramento, has an impressive resume. He graduated from Harvard University, went on to obtain a law degree from Yale and then participated in some of the more high-profile trials in the United States as a young lawyer.
Kiley successfully prosecuted the Chinese firm Huawei for trade secrets theft in a case that became the foundation for the federal government’s investigation into the telecommunications corporation.
Kiley also successfully sued Newsom, saying the governor overstepped his authority when he used emergency powers under the coronavirus to unilaterally change voting provisions, including a mandate for county election offices to send mail-in ballots to all eligible voters in advance of the 2020 election.
Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman ruled in favor of Kiley and his colleague James Gallagher, a Republican from Yuba City. However, the lawsuit had little practical effect on the 2020 election in California.
Kiley has long claimed Newsom used the coronavirus to expand his authority and to pursue an unconstitutional agenda. He published a book detailing why the recall election is necessary.
“He has compromised our institutions of self-government — the rule of law, checks and balances, separation of powers, representative democracy, and the Constitution itself — to promote himself and the cash-flush Special Interests that put him in office,” Kiley wrote. “It is Newsom’s abuse of extraordinary emergency powers for personal political gain, with a totalizing impact on California life, that makes this the most meritorious recall in our state’s history.”
Newsom, for his part, has kept quiet on the recall front for the past weeks, instead touting California’s health-first approach to tackling the pandemic and cementing a budget deal that included an enormous windfall as California’s economy proved surprisingly resilient during the pandemic.
Newsom and his supporters have characterized the recall effort as a plot by the GOP to advance a nakedly partisan agenda.
“I won’t be distracted by this partisan, Republican recall --- but I will fight it,” Newsom said back in March.
Recall critics note Newsom is up for reelection in 2022 anyway, and the recall effort is a costly and unnecessary waste of taxpayer resources. Republicans say Newsom’s spendthrift ways are more of a cost to taxpayers and recalling him would represent long-term savings.
While Kiley has focused much of his ire on Newsom’s handling of the pandemic, the state must also grapple with other major issues including a housing crunch, the related homelessness crisis, a spike in murder rates in urban areas and wildfire seasons that have proved enormously destructive to life and property in the Golden State.
But Kiley is likely to keep the focus on what he deems Newsom’s corruption, or his propensity to play favorites by keeping certain industries open during the throes of the pandemic while shuttering others.
“Together, we’ve built a new model of citizen-backed representation,” Kiley said. “Now we can prove it’s more powerful than Gavin Newsom’s special interest corruption.”
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