The Club for Growth Action PAC is running TV ads that slam California’s Democrat Gov.
Gavin Newsom for sending his own children to in-person private school while most California public schools remain closed for now.
"Across the country, schools are reopening safely but in California, the people in charge are hypocrites and failing our kids, mocking parents, sending their own kids to school. Even calling reopening racist," the Club for Growth Action ad states.
The TV ad also criticizes comments made by the United Teachers of Los Angeles earlier this week. The union, which represents California's largest school district, called the state's new school reopening plan "a recipe for propagating structural racism" ahead of Newsom's signature on the bill last week.
According to reporting by POLITICO, the $34,243 ad aired in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego, also takes on a Berkeley teachers union leader who was criticized last week for enrolling his child in a private preschool as public schools remain closed.
“Too many of public schools in California and across America are failing students, and the ongoing unnecessary school closures are making this painfully obvious to parents that they should determine how their education tax dollars are spent instead of self-interested bureaucrats,” said Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh.
“Club for Growth and its affiliates are looking for opportunities to highlight particularly egregious policies and comments by education bureaucrats and even pass bold parental school choice legislation,” explained Mr. McIntosh. “It’s long past time for students in California and elsewhere to be back in the classroom, and parents are rightly demanding accountability. Our proposal is straightforward: Send the money through the parents – so when schools are closed or failing their children, they can choose to do what is best for their children. They can choose to send the money to the public schools, private schools, homeschool, or pay for tutors or technology for their children.”
The ad also features Oakley Union Elementary school trustees caught on a hot mic ridiculing parents, including Board President Lisa Brizendine saying that "they want their babysitters back." The entire board later resigned.
Meanwhile, as teachers unions fight to keep schools closed until all school staff are inoculated and case rates decline, POLITICO reported a video captured by a group called “Guerilla Momz" shows Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Matt Meyer dropping off his 2-year-old daughter at an in-person private preschool.
The Hill’s Reid Wilson reported history suggests Newsom faces a difficult road: Of the 10 recall efforts that have qualified for the ballot since 1913, six have succeeded, including four of the last five. The only governor to face a recall election, Gray Davis in 2003, lost his job.
California’s recall process is unique observed Mr. Wilson. Voters first decide whether the incumbent should be recalled, then — regardless of how they voted on the first question — they decide who should replace the incumbent.
In 2003, there were 135 candidates running to replace Davis, said Wilson, including media magnate Arianna Huffington, actor Gary Coleman, porn magnate Larry Flynt, a porn star, a former commissioner of Major League Baseball and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who eventually won with 49 percent of the vote.
There are no Schwarzenegger-level names likely to enter the race, but at least two serious Republicans — former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox — say they will run. Ric Grenell, former U.S. ambassador to Germany and a staunch Trump ally, is also laying the groundwork for a possible bid, concluded Mr. Wilson’s report for The Hill.
There is now less than a week for recall supporters to turn in the nearly 1.5 million valid signatures they will need to force an election, however, with supporters claiming more than 1.9 million signed petitions, Newsom advisers have quietly acknowledged the inevitability of the recall election, and the challenge they face in turning out their supporters.
To get updates from RecallGavin2020.com and a recall petition click here.
California Recall
Gavin Newsom
Club for Growth
TV Ads
Public School closures
Private schools
UTLA union
David McIntosh
School choice
Home Schools
School vouchers
COVID vaccine
Matt Meyer
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer
John Cox
Ric Grenell