Saving California Launches Recall Effort Against Governor Gavin Newsom

It’s 2025 and a recall effort is underway in California. This is the final effort to recall Gavin Newsom during his tenure as governor of California following past recall attempts, and is organized by Saving California, a coalition that was founded in late 2024 by Randy Economy, who was a senior adviser for the 2021 recall effort.

The coalition states that it will serve recall papers to Governor Newsom in January 2025. They want to wait until after President Trump’s Inauguration and then will officially serve papers to Newsom, who then has ten days to respond. The Secretary of State is responsible for authorizing the recall request as valid, and then the clock starts to tick and the coalition must gather the signatures in a few months’ time.

The signatures must be gathered in person: the Saving California team lamented that while there are petitions online such as with change.org, those signatures have no legal power to contribute to the recall effort. They encourage people to print official petitions and take them to neighbors and family for wet signatures.

A growing non-partisan movement

Economy explains that the board is expanding and also growing the broader team behind Saving California. He noted that the coalition is non-partisan and “we have so many Democrats supporting us. I don’t care what you are. Everybody needs to check reality and understand we can’t live under this man and his dictator ways anymore. We can’t. He’s just not competent. He needs to be fired.” Economy described one team member as having been “a liberal dem from Santa Monica,” adding, “it’s not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. It’s a California thing.”

Board member Susan Walsh agreed, explaining, “I work with Democrats, Independents, Republicans, you name it. It’s so refreshing. We’re all forces moving in the right direction of common sense.”

Why will this recall work? What’s different this time?

Randy Economy, who is leading the effort, says the 2025 recall will be successful “because of Gavin Newsom himself. He’s a diminished shell of a leader; he’s not competent to run the fifth largest economy in the world.” Economy noted that the recent fires in Los Angeles have shown that Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass, and others “have reached their level of competency. When you have a tragedy like this, you want people who can respond and find solutions. They’ve been doing absolutely nothing since the day these fires started. But they hold press conferences.”

The recent fires across California and specifically in the Los Angeles area seem to be the reason a lot of proponents get involved. Saving California Board Member Susan Walsh shared, “personally I am worried. We can’t afford this negligence and corruption. It’s terrifying. I’m very concerned about the totality of the rest of the state based on L.A. If L.A. is the model, what does that mean for the rest of the state? We are out of time and we’re running out of cities to burn down.”

When asked why recall an official during his final term in office, Economy argued, “we can’t afford another two years of Gavin Newsom. The man can do so much destruction in two weeks, let alone two years.” Economy feels he has laid the groundwork for success using what he learned from past attempts. “We have our plan, we have our budget, we have our petitions ready to roll out, we have every mechanical thing done, we are just implementing our plan.”

Economy also argued that Gray Davis was in his second term as governor when a successful recall effort was launched against him in 2003. Nearly five million people voted “Yes” to remove Davis from office. He was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Newsom’s biggest threat

When asked about the feature Mother Jones published about Randy Economy, calling him Gavin Newsom’s “most dangerous threat,” Economy replied, “Yeah, apparently I am.” He said it’s a labor of love for the state, not an act of vengeance: “With the team that we are building, and the kindness we have in our hearts, we aren’t doing this for ego—we are doing this for California. We are coming from a very, very good place, a positive place. We don’t want to destroy this man; we want our California back.”

Who is leading this recall effort?

“I’ve run possibly close to 350 campaigns in my life,” Economy shared. “I ran my first campaign when I was twelve years old, a city council campaign … then when I was a freshman in high school, my mother was very active in national politics and one of her first national clients was Jimmy Carter.” When Economy would come home from school, Carter would be at his house; his mother was a lead fundraiser for California, raising millions of dollars for his campaign against Gerald Ford. “When Jimmy passed away, part of my mom passed away.” Economy says that Jimmy Carter has always had a special spot in his heart.

Economy’s mother’s influence in politics led him to pursue a similar path. “Sometimes when you’re the son of a cobbler, you make good shoes,” he chuckled.

Economy’s mother died shortly after Carter’s funeral. Only days before her death, Economy’s mother urged him to get Newsom out of office.

Saving California’s board members come from a variety of backgrounds. Dr. Houman David Hemmati, a physician-scientist and biopharma entrepreneur who has worked in Los Angeles and is a critic of prolonged lockdowns, school closures, and blanket mandates. Art Olivier ran for governor in 2006, and was also a vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in 2000. Susan “Daya” Hamwi was a passionate supporter of the Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. James Bradley is a veteran and businessman who worked thirty years in healthcare. Susan Walsh, who was a Democrat for a majority of her life, resides in Nevada County and represents Northern California interests. After switching parties, Walsh played a pivotal role in California for Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign. Neil C. Flyer is a businessman in southern California who has worked in the television industry for decades. Daniella Bloom was appointed as the national ambassador of JEXIT (Jews exiting the Democrat Party). Derrick Whitney is a cryptocurrency and blockchain expert with a passion in emerging technologies. Douglas J. Bystry provides financial services to low-income communities throughout California and served on the Orange County City Council.

Economy describes the leadership of Saving California as strong and coming from every walk of life. “My board. They’re my heroes. They have taken the ball and they have figured this sh*t out for the last four months. On every single detail.”

Events are already unfolding

According to Economy, Saving California will hold a press event in Los Angeles on Thursday, January 23, at Kitson, a lifestyle boutique in Los Angeles. “During the press event, we need 50 lead proponents to sign the formal petition and declaration of recall against the governor,” Economy said. Hopefully we will collect as many as 400-600 signatures at the event. We are inviting people up and down the state.”

Economy says Newsom will be served papers days after the inauguration, and then the formal process continues. “It’s an honor and it’s very humbling and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.”