Recall battleground: California schools + Health care workers are burning out + NARAL scorecard

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RECALL WATCH: FAULCONER HITS NEWSOM ON SCHOOLS

The deadline to turn in at least 1.5 million signatures supporting the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom is now less than one month away. Organizers say they have the needed signatures, but elections officials need to verify them before they’re officially counted. Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber’s office is expected to release a report of validated signatures later this week.

Meanwhile, Republican challenger Kevin Faulconer is taking advantage of stubborn school reopening negotiations to promote his campaign. The former San Diego Mayor visited San Francisco on Wednesday to call for a return to classrooms.

“Our elitist governor Gavin Newsom continues to sit idly by while he creates an education equality gap that will haunt students for their entire lives,” Faulconer said at the press conference.

Newsom says talks continue with lawmakers on reopening schools. “We are making progress, and it is stubborn,” he said this week. Read more here on the stalemate he’s confronting.

Yesterday, we told you about a skirmish among California Republicans ahead of the party’s organizing convention this weekend. The proposed amendment in question, which would have changed how the party endorses a statewide recall candidate, has now been withdrawn.

California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson notified delegates on Wednesday afternoon:

“While I believe this proposal was well-intentioned to ensure that our party could take an official position as we work to remove the worst governor in state history from office, the unintended consequence is that it was dividing us at a time when nothing is more important than being unified and focused on making sure the recall qualifies for the ballot,” Patterson said.

Remember, the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 saw dozens of candidates put their names on the ballot. Currently, only Faulconer and businessman John Cox have officially launched campaigns. If the recall does qualify, there could be far more candidates for the California Republican party to choose from

Carl DeMaio, a California GOP delegate and chairman of Reform California, said he’s happy to see the amendment withdrawn, and hopes the party commits to a “public process that involves the grassroots in the selection of the eventual candidate.”

SURVEY FINDS HEALTH CARE WORKERS ARE BURNING OUT

Health care providers, on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, are burning out in large numbers.

That’s the finding of a recent survey conducted by the California Health Care Foundation, which surveyed 1,202 health providers from Jan. 4-14.

Half, 50%, of providers are frustrated at their job, while 57% say they are overworked, 59% say they are burned out and 68% say they are emotionally drained as a result of the pandemic. All of these numbers are either the same or higher than when the last survey was conducted in September.

A majority, 85%, of providers said that they either have already received the COVID-19 vaccine or are planning to do so. But tellingly, just 62% expressed some level of confidence that the vaccine will be widely distributed — down from 75% in September.

High levels of providers, 45%, report that they are still reusing personal protective equipment, while 39% say that they do not have enough medical-grade N95 masks to go around. Just under half, 48%, said that there are not enough beds available, while 44% said there are not enough staff to handle the current COVID-19 levels.

“California’s health care providers are under strain and fed up,” Kristof Stremikis, director of Market Analysis and Insight at the California Health Care Foundation, said in a statement. “Too many report that they still lack basic supplies, and we’re seeing rising levels of burnout and exhaustion. And providers are increasingly frustrated with the public for not doing their part to save lives.”

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS GROUP RELEASES 2021 LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD

As California’s 2021 legislative session heats up, NARAL Pro-Choice California has released a scorecard, which will score key Assembly and Senate committee and floor votes on legislation dealing with reproductive rights, as well as factoring in lead authorship and co-authorship of bills.

“With the scorecard, NARAL also aims to differentiate between lawmakers who support reproductive freedom and those who are willing to go above and beyond to stand with the 84% of Californians who believe abortion should be legal,” according to a statement from the organization.

Among the bills that NARAL Pro-Choice California will be tracking are sponsored bills SB 245, which would remove cost-sharing for abortion services and SB 379, which would require the University of California health care systemdoctors and students practicing at non-UC facilities are able to provide services including reproductive health and gender-affirming care.

You can look at the methodology that the group will use by visiting here.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In a frenzied effort to ingratiate themselves to extremist coastal elite political agendas, Sens. (Scott) Wiener and (Monique) Limón are risking the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands blue-collar families and a doubling of the cost to get to work and school, all without a benefit to the environment.”

- Robbie Hunter, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, in a statement regarding a new bill that would ban fracking in the state by 2027.

Best of the Bee:

• A spike in coronavirus-related deaths at a state-run psychiatric hospital in Fresno County has angered and alarmed patients, who blame hospital staff for a massive outbreak that infected hundreds and killed more than a dozen patients over the past six months, via Nadia Lopez.

• California cities could face lawsuits for failing to follow through on plans to dramatically reduce homelessness under a proposal from San Francisco Democrat that aims to help end the humanitarian emergency by 2029, via Hannah Wiley.

• Black and Latino residents are receiving far fewer doses than white residents in Sacramento County, according to new data released by state officials Friday, reflecting a trend of racial disparity that has come to define the coronavirus pandemic, via Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks.