How Gavin Newsom fought back against the recall

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, no governor in America moved faster to close down schools, restrict businesses and order his own constituents into a long and painful lockdown than did California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

Newsom’s steps, at times taken ahead of public health advice issued by the Trump administration, poured gasoline on what had been a sleepy and uninspired effort to recall the governor, firing up a fierce anger that has now forced Newsom to defend himself in a pricey fight to save his political career. More than 2.1 million Californians signed petitions supporting his recall.

Paradoxically, as a new wave of coronavirus infections crests over residents who are at once weary of the pandemic and openly accepting of the vaccines that have blunted if not completely muted the delta variant, Newsom’s response may be what propels him to victory Tuesday night as the first California governor to survive a recall election.

Where polls over the summer showed Newsom only barely surviving, a new spate of late surveys shows he is cruising to victory. A survey released Friday by the University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, conducted for the Los Angeles Times, shows 60 percent of California voters rejecting the recall.