The California election regarding the recall of Governor Gavin Newsom is scheduled for Tuesday, September 14.  The following column explains the mechanics of the recall.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/24/gavin-newsom-recall-loss-turn-progressives-conservative/

The following is a current summary of the polls showing that this recall election is too close to call:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/california-recall-polls/

The following column explains why Gavin Newsom is in danger of being recalled:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/23/gavin-newsom-recall-danger/?no_nav=true

The following is my column of yesterday regarding the determination of the two-person panel of the California Board of Parole Hearings that the request for parole of Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy be approved:

https://www.insidernj.com/america-sirhan-wrought

In this column, I asserted that parole for Sirhan would be a gross miscarriage of justice, especially from an historic point of view.  There would also be a major negative political consequence:  Governor Newsom will almost certainly lose the recall election if he acquiesces in the Sirhan parole.

The recall of Governor Gavin Newsome could lead to a certain Republican takeover of control of the United States Senate in the VERY near future, as follows:

If Newsom loses the recall election, Republican media personality Larry Elder would likely become the governor.   He is a right-wing lunatic, grossly unfit for any public office.

That’s horrible enough, but even worse, the ascension by Elder to the California governorship could well result in the Republican Party, now under the suzerainty of Donald Trump, gaining control of the United States Senate.

There are growing rumors about California Democratic US Senator Dianne Feinstein soon leaving the Senate because of her health and age.  And a Governor Larry Elder would certainly replace her with a Republican, giving the Republicans a 51-49 advantage and thus control of the US Senate.  This would in reality give Donald Trump personal US Senate dominance:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/08/california-recall-dianne-feinstein-senate-stakes.amp

I spent virtually my entire adult life devoted to the Republican Party and its former ideals of traditional conservatism, limited government, and conservative internationalist foreign policy, as distinguished from either neocon Wilsonian Pax Americana or isolationist policies.  I used to refer to myself humorously, but accurately, as the last surviving New Jersey Eisenhower Republican.

The current dominant influence in the GOP, Donald Trump and Trumpist fascism, is a repudiation of all that.  Accordingly, while not pledging fealty to the Democratic Party, I now will continue to support the election of Democratic Congresses as long as Donald Trump and Trumpism control the Republican Party.

A Republican takeover of the United States Senate would have catastrophic consequences for New Jersey.  And I use the word “catastrophic” deliberately.  Three major consequences stand out:

1.  A Republican Senate takeover dooms the federal funding of the Gateway Program (originally Gateway Project), the planned phased expansion and renovation of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) rail line between Newark, New Jersey and New York City, New York. The economic, transportation, environmental, and other infrastructure impacts resulting from the failure to implement this project would be of an unprecedented disastrous magnitude.

2. A Republican Senate takeover would thwart efforts to fully restore the federal income tax SALT deductions (state and local taxes). The full restoration of these deductions is a vital priority for middle class New Jerseyans.
3. The Biden infrastructure proposals contain major funding for essential New Jersey environmental needs: Superfund increases, climate resiliency, water and sewer upgrades, just to name a few. A Republican Senate will reject all these Biden environmental proposals, and the major loser will be the environment of New Jersey.

Very rarely has New Jersey had as significant an interest in an election in another state as it does in the case of the California gubernatorial recall. In essence, the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom will mean a likely GOP US Senate takeover in the near future – and a resulting parade of economic and environmental horribles for New Jersey.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission