The Armenian Council of America, after much consideration and research, have determined that removing California Governor Newsom and replacing him with an untested and unprepared alternative would be a disaster. It would doom the state to months of political and bureaucratic dysfunction and economic uncertainty. Given that the majority of Armenian Americans in the United States live in California, this is unacceptable.
While pandemic response has been his top responsibility over the last year and a half, Newsom has also started work on solving some of the state’s most intractable problems, using the state’s historic budget surplus to fund programs to help individuals and businesses recover from the pandemic, build more affordable housing, house the state’s unsheltered, and prevent and fight wildfires. All these programs would be hampered or outright disregarded with a successful recall, due to most of the 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom, being utterly unqualified.
In addition to all of the above mentioned programs that are domestic in nature, Newsom’s executive order which requires, by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be zero-emission vehicles, which would in all intents and purposes be expanded to the rest of the United States, would also be halted. This would give despotic states, such as Azerbaijan, who’s primary source of income to wage war is through the sale of oil, a reprieve to continue using oil as a repressive tool internationally.
For all of the above reasons, the Armenian Council of America urges Armenian Americans living in California to vote no to recalling the California Governor on September 14.
