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As California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom advocates for a special election to advance a redistricting map that favors Democrats, some critics are pointing out that he took a very different tone when another special election was called to remove him from office.
The Newsom recall vote is estimated to have cost the state and counties $276 million to administer the election, according to an official projection by the California Department of Finance.
Meanwhile, the redistricting special election, which will be held on Nov. 4, will cost around $230 million, according to estimates by California Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Buffy Wicks, a Democrat.
Besides this, at the Nov. 4 special election, California voters will decide whether to temporarily suspend the map drawn by the independent commission for a map passed by the legislature. Politico reported that California voters deeply favor the independent redistricting commission previously passed by voters.
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Newsom previously criticized the 2021 recall vote against him as a “waste” of government resources, saying in an official response to the recall effort, “Here’s the worst part: Their partisan recall will waste 200 million taxpayer dollars desperately needed for emergency preparedness and response.”
“The last thing California needs is another wasteful special election, supported by those who demonize California’s people and attack California’s values,” the response said.
The Los Angeles Times reported Newsom claiming the effort consisted of “a handful of partisan activists supporting President Trump and his dangerous agenda to divide America are trying to overturn the definitive will of California voters and bring Washington’s broken government to California with this recall effort.”
In a March press conference reported on by ABC 7 News, Newsom again pushed back against the recall vote effort, saying, “Now is not the time to waste hundreds of millions of dollars on a recall effort that is nothing more than a partisan power grab. This is, and forgive me, a Republican-backed recall.”
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Other California Democrats now pushing the redistricting vote were equally critical of the recall vote as a waste.
Assembly member Marc Berman, Democrat, previously expressed that “Californians are very frustrated that we just spent $276 million on this recall election that, from the looks of it, certified what voters said three years ago and what voters could have said next year,” CalMatters reported.
Yet, speaking this week in front of a committee in a heated exchange about the projected cost of the redistricting special election, Berman said, “$250 million looks like couch cushion change.”
Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., called the recall vote “a $276 million waste just to reaffirm 2018’s results with an election coming in 2022,” according to CNN.
Now, Mullin has said in a press release that he stands with Newsom’s special election push as “Democrats are committed to giving voters the opportunity to counter this move in Texas and restore some balance of power in Washington.”
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the conservative group Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab, called the redistricting push is an example of Democratic hypocrisy.
“Gavin Newsom and California Democrats have abandoned any pretense of moral high ground by forcing a wasteful special election that voters don’t want,” said Patterson.
“Their blatant hypocrisy at the expense of California taxpayers sends a clear message: grasping for power matters more to them than honest, principled governing,” she added.
In response, Newsom’s office directed Fox News Digital to comments the governor made in a press conference last week in which he said, “There’s no price tag for democracy.”
Newsom assured county officials worried about the special election costs that the state of California “will be funding it.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Berman and Mullin but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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