Newsom’s nightmare: How one November day fueled the recall

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The recall election against California Gov. Gavin Newsom stems from two key events on a single day last November. That’s when the Democratic governor dined with 11 friends and lobbyists at the high-end French Laundry restaurant while he was urging Californians not to gather. It’s also when recall organizers got four extra months to qualify for the ballot. The extension gave them time to gather the nearly 1.5 million signatures needed. A loss by Newsom next Tuesday would be a shocking outcome for a first-term Democrat who won in a landslide in 2018 and would likely install a Republican governor in the nation’s biggest blue state.