Larry Elder: Challenger to governor barnstorms through SoCal in final push
On the eve of California’s recall election, it came down to a French dip sandwich and pastrami for Larry Elder on Monday.
The conservative talk radio host turned front-running GOP challenger to Gov. Gavin Newsom made an appearance at Philippe the Original eatery in downtown Los Angeles.
The lunchtime crowd got more than it bargained for: a candidate barnstorming through the L.A. area fully mindful that the Democratic establishment would take aim at him later in the day when President Joe Biden was scheduled to swoop in to Long Beach to
buoy Newsom in the final hours before election day.
“Of course I’ve given him a target,” said Elder, pausing from a walk through the downtown landmark, hugging and chatting with buzzing supporters — some who knew he was coming, some who didn’t.
“My name is Larry Elder, I’m the front-runner,” he told the crowd. “I think I’ve energized the state. I think I’ve energized the party. That’s why they’re bringing in this heavy lumber. … Because they’re scared. They’re afraid.”
On the diner’s sawdust-covered floors, Elder’s visit became a kind of miniature news conference, where he offered a laundry list of grievances against Newsom, ranging from the economic impact of pandemic shutdowns, crime rates, the homeless and affordable housing crises, how the state has managed the drought and the state of California’s schools.
“I can’t think of any front in the last two years where Californians’ lives have been better,” said the conservative radio host.
It was a campaign message that he would echo at three other L.A.-area stops on Monday: from Monterey Park, where he’d attend a medal presentation to a Chinese-American World War II veteran, and a gathering at San Pedro’s Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in the L.A. Harbor Area to a final rally scheduled in Costa Mesa in the evening.
Just about the same time the self-styled “Sage From South Central” was expected to be working that Orange County crowd, Biden was scheduled to touch down a couple of dozen miles away in Long Beach.
The 69-year-old syndicated commentator, author and attorney entered the recall race late in the game but swiftly secured the frontrunners’ slot, should voters oust Newsom.
On Monday, he was greeted by chants of “Larry! Larry!” in downtown L.A. Despite the supermajorities he’d face in Sacramento should be snag victory today, his supporters were eager to grant him the governor’s chair.
“It’s time for a change,” said Robert Monaghan, of L.A., a fan of Elder, who he says is ready to govern. “I think he’d be a great person to turn the state around.”
“I don’t want to move, but I feel like my future under the current administration I’d have to start thinking about it,” said Alan Parks, of Altadena, accompanied by his wife, Dottie.
The couple happened to be sitting in a room at the restaurant enjoying a couple of sandwiches when Elder strode in with an entourage of supporters and media.
While he’d be up against a Legislature unlikely to greenlight his legislative priorities, Elder said he would immediately use his executive authority. His first act would be to repeal state mandates on vaccinations, testing and masks at businesses, he said. He would also declare states of emergency on housing and water.
Not all of the folks snagging a Philippe’s lunch, however, were Elder faithful.
“I refuse to put a B-list radio show host in charge of the world’s fifth-largest economy,” said Whittier resident Manny Rodriguez, enjoying a couple of sandwiches and soda pop with his wife, Virginia.
Rodriguez lamented what he said was Elder’s alignment with the style and substance of the conservatism framed by former President Donald Trump’s era. He said the GOP would be better off to wait and run a “viable candidate” in the formal gubernatorial election next year.
The couple acknowledged that not everything Newsom has done in the midst of the pandemic has been perfect. State protocols could have been more consistent, they said.
But it’s a pandemic, they said. Policies aren’t going to please everyone. It’s “a Catch-22,” said Virginia Rodriguez.
Elder’s opinions have been widely broadcast for years, and some past words have become campaign issues.
The media and his fellow candidates have scrutinized his past statements that he doesn’t believe there’s a gender-based wage gap or a glass ceiling for women, that welfare “incentivizes women to marry the government” and that Trump motivated obese women to “get off the couch” when they marched against him in 2018.
Elder has cast aside such criticism, saying he’s anything but extreme. At the core of his policy prescriptions, he said, have been basic economics and contemporary logic. He said his common-sense approach has been glossed over by “leftwing media” and other cynical cultural observers.
Also, his former fiancee has claimed that he emotionally mistreated her and once brandished a gun in front of her, allegations Elder has vehemently denied.
None of the criticism, however, appears to have diluted his core supporters’ enthusiasm.
Elder is not alone, however, on the ballot stocked with candidates who aim to snag Newsom’s seat, though he consistently leads polls by double digits among the 46 challengers.
Many were also counting down the final hours of their challenge, chiming in on the campaign trail and the twittersphere.
Kevin Paffrath is the leading Democrat in the polls, though trailing Elder. Republicans Kevin Faulconer and John Cox are the closest Republicans behind Elder, according to pollsters.
Also hosting rallies in the last days of the campaign were GOP hopefuls Assemblyman Kevin Kiley and former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, among others.
Like Elder, former San Diego Mayor Faulconer dismissed Biden’s planned visit.
“Washington, D.C., is not going to save Gavin Newsom,” Faulconer said. “He wants to make it about anything else but him. This recall is a referendum on Gavin Newsom’s failure. That’s why so many Californians not only signed the recall petition, but that’s why Californians in all parts of the state, all party registrations, are ready for a change at the top.”
Paffrath was firing off tweets in recent days, slamming Newsom.
“Newsom’s policies for California are like fly tape someone put over a pile of poop. Rather than remove the poop, Newsom cheers that he caught a few flies,” he wrote in one post.
Cox has touted himself a political outsider who will bring a businesslike administration to Sacramento. Newsom “and his political insiders in Sacramento have driven California into the ground,” Cox said. “Vote yes to [recall Newsom] and elect a businessman with a proven track record of getting things done.” .
If any of the challengers gets the nod, however, they must first get past the first of only two questions on the recall ballot: whether voters want to recall Newsom in the first place. As the final hours loomed, the latest polls indicated voters are likely to let Newsom stay.
Regardless of the outcome, Elder has vowed not to relinquish the state’s political spotlight. He says Democrats know quite well that he’s built considerable clout in the past few weeks.
“I’m going to get Black and Brown voters to connect the dots, and they’re going to now question their loyalty to the Democratic party in ways they never did before,” he said. “That’s why they are afraid.”