On election day, Denise Pickens had a surprising feeling: Hope.
Surely, she figured, Gov. Gavin Newsom would be booted out of office. Or at least get a good scare.
There was such fervor here in rural Lassen County — where a whopping 84% of voters supported the recall, the highest percentage in the state — that it was hard not to believe it could happen.
Then Newsom’s landslide victory landed like a kick in the shin with a steel-toed boot.
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As for the California GOP, which had its best shot in over a decade of governing the state?
“Ineffective, as usual,” said Pickens, a longtime Republican.
“Part of me is just like, you know what, the Democratic progressive machine is what it is, and there’s just not enough of us,” she said.
Getting the recall on the ballot initially felt like a win here in Northern California, where conservatives have long felt they would be better off seceding to form their own state called Jefferson.
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“The Democratic Party is the New York Yankees, and the Republican Party in this state is the Minor Leagues,” said Christopher Cole, the former chairman of the Lassen County Republican Party. “You can’t compete.”