Harmeet Dhillon: THIS Recall Gavin Campaign Has Over 800,000 Petitions
Harmeet Dhillon doesn’t need national publicity. She’s frequently invited onto the national stage by conservative television hosts. By the time you’ve been on television as many times as Harmeet Dhillon has, you’re not appearing for the thrill of the experience, you’re appearing because you have a duty to spread the truth and motivate millions of people to fight the good fight.
So why would Harmeet Dhillon, one of the finest and most eloquent conservatives California’s got, make an epic misstatement of fact, one that throws cold water into the faces of thousands of activists who have worked tirelessly since June to recall Governor Newsom?
In an appearance on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle last week, Harmeet Dhillon was asked about the signature gathering campaign which could very well force Gavin Newsom into a special recall election, and a fight for his political life by the spring of 2021. Ingraham mentioned that according to one of the leaders of the effort, Tom Del Beccaro, the effort to recall Newsom has gathered over 700,000 signatures so far.
Ingraham asked Dhillon, “how would this work, if the signature number, 1.5 million was actually reached?”
To which Dhillon answered, “first of all this is the third such recall effort, there are two prior efforts, so I think the signatures you are mentioning are with some other recall efforts.”
Where is Dhillon getting her information? If she had talked with anyone connected with the recall campaign, she would know that 700,000 is actually an outdated number, and that the latest estimate has total signed recall petitions at well over 800,000. Not including the “two prior efforts.”
Last week, a few days prior to Dhillon’s appearance on Fox, I spoke with Paul Olson, principal at GoCo Consulting. Olson’s firm, which has years of experience in this business, are verifying that the signed petitions are valid. They are checking signatures, names, and addresses against a file of California’s registered voters. They are making sure signatures match, names are correct, that there aren’t duplicates, and the forms are filled out correctly.
In a telephone conversation with Paul Olson on 11/18, he confirmed that his firm has already processed 494,000 signed petitions which have either just been turned in or are now being delivered to the county clerks around the state. Olson also confirmed that his firm is currently processing another 230,000 signatures. That’s 724,000, Ms. Dhillon. All gathered for this effort, and not including previous efforts.
When combined with the 55,000 – for this effort – that were turned in earlier in the year, and the ones signed but still on their way to GoCo, conservatively estimated at 60,000, this campaign has already collected an estimated 839,000 signed recall petitions.
Lead proponent for the recall, Orrin Heatlie, reached for comment on 11/23, was enthusiastic. “There are many good developments over the last few days. We are talking with people who have just now decided to support and endorse the campaign. On all fronts, signature gathering, web traffic, and donations, our momentum continues to build.”
To force a recall election, the campaign will need to turn in not quite 2.0 million signatures, in order to be certain to yield a net quantity of approved petitions numbering at least 1,495,709. They have 114 days left to gather another 1.0 million signed petitions. When one considers the fact that two weeks ago, 5.9 million Californians voted to reelect President Trump (a number set to increase since they’re still counting votes), and every one of those voters would probably sign a petition to recall Newsom, finding people to sign is not the problem.
What will challenge the recall campaign is earning additional publicity and managing logistics. The volunteers who have gathered over 800,000 signatures can continue gathering signatures at an accelerating rate, but they need help. Some of that help will come from a new committee formed to assist on the recall, headed up by former California State GOP chairman Tom Del Beccaro. But where are the rest of the troops?
Where is the California State GOP, which endorsed the recall effort early in the summer? Now that the November elections are over, why aren’t they putting their resources in every county into the recall? Almost every email the CAGOP blasts to their list disparages Newsom. Do they really mean it? Because the state party, fully committed to the recall, could make a big difference.
As for Harmeet Dhillon, she is invited to call Laura Ingraham’s senior producer (his name is Roman Cofini), and request a new interview where she can tell America – most certainly including Californians – the true measure of the recall campaign’s accomplishments so far.
That one gesture would go a very long way towards motivating volunteers who have already made history. It would also attract national attention to a movement that strikes at the heart of the progressive fraud in America, King Newsom, California’s endangered governor.
This article originally appeared on the website California Globe.
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Edward Ring is a contributing editor and senior fellow with the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. He is also a senior fellow with the Center for American Greatness, and a regular contributor to the California Globe. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Forbes, and other media outlets.
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