California Governor Gavin Newsom will not be able to put his Democratic Party affiliation on the ballot in the state's recall race set for September 14, when voters will decide if they want to remove and replace him.
Newsom missed a deadline to submit his party affiliation and sued California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who he appointed to the position, last month in an effort to add it to the ballot.
On Monday, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles ruled that Newsom would not be permitted to add his party affiliation because the deadline requirement was part of legislation that Newsom actually approved in 2019 during his tenure as governor.
Last month, Newsom filed a 25-page lawsuit to challenge that requirement, claiming that it is unnecessary to bar him from putting his party affiliation on the ballot.
'As long as the fundamental purposes underlying the applicable constitutional or statutory requirements have been fulfilled, there is compliance with the applicable statute,' the lawsuit reads.
California Governor Gavin Newsom will not be able to put his Democratic Party affiliation on the ballot in the state's recall race set for September 14
Newsom's campaign explained that they missed the deadline to submit his party affiliation to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and it was an inadvertent mistake
Newsom's elections attorney, Thomas Willis, and an attorney for Weber argued during an hour-long hearing on Friday that Newsom made a harmless mistake and it is in voter's best interest to know his party affiliation.
They added that election officials still have enough time to add Newsom's party to the ballot considering eligible candidates have until July 16 to enter the race. 'The court has sufficient time to act before the recall ballot is finalized,' the lawsuit reads.
Republicans slammed Newsom as trying to avert the rules everybody else has to follow.
'At base this comes down to whether the governor of California has to follow the unambiguous law — and it just so happens, a law that he signed,' said attorney Eric Early, who represents key leaders of the recall, such as Orrin Heatlie, Mike Netter and the California Patriot Coalition.
While not garnering much serious support in her bid to replace Newsom, reality TV personality and Olympian Caitlyn Jenner held the first news conference of her campaign to announce that she was joining a lawsuit against Newsom and called it her first step toward chipping away at the bureaucracy plaguing California politics.
Judge James Arguelles said Monday that there were no reasons to look beyond the law Newsom approved that required him to submit his party affiliation by a specified date.
He added that the law 'unambiguously precludes party information from appearing on a recall ballot where the elected officer fails timely to make the designation.'
Reality TV personality and Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, who is running against Newsom, joined the lawsuit to prevent him from adding his party preference to the ballot past the deadline to submit it
After the judge's decision was confirmed, Jenner tweeted 'I am thrilled that the rule of law prevailed. Joining this lawsuit was the first step of finally breaking down politics-as-usual in Sacramento where special interests and political cronies are placed above the good of the people. The end is near for Gavin Newsom!'
Early hailed Arguelles' ruling and said, 'He followed the law, and that's all we can ask for. No one is above the law, and this ruling makes clear that includes Gavin Newsom.'
Newsom campaign spokesman Nathan Click did not respond directly to the ruling, but said that Newsom would defeat the recall that he called a 'Republican power grab.'
Previous recall targets weren't allowed to list their political
