Gov. Newsom’s ‘petitions’ + Prop. 22 backers reunite to lobby + CalChamber’s vaccine campaign

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THE ‘PETITION’ IN YOUR INBOX

via Sophia Bollag

With a likely recall looming, Gov. Gavin Newsom is shoring up his base of supporters using national Democratic stars, small-dollar fundraising pleas, and even his own “petition.”

“Join Stacey Abrams, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren: add your name to our NEW petition of Californians who say they OPPOSE the Republican Recall of Governor Gavin Newsom,” the campaign wrote in an email linking to a form where people are asked to provide their names, email addresses and zip codes.

It’s not a traditional petition, which are typically used to ask for a government action.

Instead, it’s an effort to collect contact information from supporters, said anti-recall spokesman Nathan Click.

Experts say the tactic is common among political campaigns, but it’s one that could confuse voters.

“The term petition, we think of it as meaning something that will have some impact on the government,” said Kim Nalder, a political science professor at Sacramento State. “Calling it a petition is somewhat misleading to voters. It seems like you’re making some sort of official difference when it’s actually about collecting information.”

The petition push is one of dozens of emails Newsom’s campaign has sent to supporters in the month since he launched his anti-recall campaign.

Most of Newsom’s emails ask supporters to donate $3, then take them to a page that has options for amounts ranging from $3 to $1,000. Experts say he could use the contact information collected through his petition to ask for more donations later. If he gets a lot of signatures, he could also tout that as evidence of a broad support, just as recall supporters have.

That’s not the only petition out there. Recall supporters just wrapped up collecting signatures on their own petitions to trigger a special election. And recall opponents are now asking people who signed to go through a kind of reverse-petition process to remove their signatures, a last-ditch effort to prevent a special election.

We have more on Newsom’s email petitions in this story today.

COALITION REFORMS ‘TO PROTECT APP-BASED DRIVERS’

Last year, gig economy giants like Uber and Lyft built a coalition of organizations to help them pass Proposition 22, the initiative that generally exempted them from the new California law that requires businesses to give employment benefits to more workers.

Now, the Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Coalition is uniting again to lobby for “access to independent, app-based work, and preserve the availability, affordability, and reliability of on-demand app-based rideshare and delivery services that are essential to California’s economy,” according to a group statement.

Its first target is Assembly Bill 286, which caps charges for a food facility’s use of a platform such as DoorDash to 15% of an online order’s purchase price. The bill is authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. Gonzalez wrote also wrote Assembly Bill 5, the employment law that was weakened by Prop. 22 last fall.

“As an immediate priority, the coalition is actively working to oppose legislation that would restrict access to app-based work and services such as Assembly Bill 286, which would impose unworkable new regulations on app-based delivery services that would raise consumer prices, decrease customers for restaurants, and reduce earning opportunities for drivers,” the group said in a statement.

Members of the coalition include the Congress on Racial Equality, the National Taxpayers Union, the California Narcotics Officers Association, the Consumer Choice Center, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart.

CALCHAMBER PROMOTES VACCINATION

A coalition of business groups including the California Chamber of Commerce has launched a new public service announcement, titled “Do It For,” that will air statewide on television, radio and social media, promoting the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

The ad will run in both English and Spanish. Funding for the ad campaign is provided by “a wide cross-section of the state business community,” according to a CalChamber statement.

“The key to opening up California’s economy safely and responsibly is to get every Californian vaccinated,” CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg said in a statement.

The ad is part of an effort from a coalition of business groups, including the California Business Roundtable, the Southern California Leadership Group, California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, the California African American Chamber of Commerce and the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.

“Over the past year, the business community has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to protect employees and customers, while dealing with unpredictable openings and closings, capacity limitations and other economic disruptions. Our efforts helped slow the spread, and now we’re stepping up to be part of the solution in ending this pandemic by encouraging our employees and the general public to get vaccinated and help their local businesses and schools get back to normal,” the coalition said in a statement.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Gov. Newsom is trying to minimize the tragedy of learning loss by calling it “unfinished learning.” Perhaps he’s hoping we’ll refer to his Recall loss as an unfinished term.”

- Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• Exclusive: Correctional officer’s death exposes hazing, toxic culture at California prison, via Wes Venteicher

• Are reparations “evil?” Here’s why these Californians say they could be necessary, via David Lightman.

• Unemployment rates fell across California last month in the latest signal that the economy is responding to the easing of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, via Dale Kasler.

This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 4:55 AM.