Vox Sentences - Lessons from California's recall

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California's recall system faces questions; the EU announces a new anti-pandemic agency.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

California's gubernatorial recall system could be in for major changes

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

• Gov. Gavin Newsom will stay in office after an attempt to replace him using California’s recall system failed. Though state Democrats have celebrated the result, it has also left many wondering if the state's recall system ought to be reformed. [AP / Don Thompson and Kathleen Ronayne]

• The recall’s critics have two main complaints: First, many are asking whether spending the $276 million the election cost was a good use of taxpayer money at a time when California is struggling with massive wildfires, widespread drought, and the ongoing pandemic. [NYT / Thomas Fuller, Maggie Astor, and Conor Dougherty]

• And second, California recall rules state that a majority of voters are needed to recall a governor, but that if the public does fire the executive, they must choose someone else to lead the state — and that gubernatorial candidates need not win a majority of votes to be the next governor. [CalMatters / Laurel Rosenhall]

• In practice, this means if Newsom had been recalled (which would have required at least 51 percent of California voters to want him gone), his main challenger, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, would have become California’s first Black governor, despite his receiving only 45 percent of the vote. [Decision Desk HQ]

• Democrats worry that this situation will encourage further conservative-led recall efforts. Winning a statewide election in California has become increasingly hard for the GOP, but it is conceivable that, following a successful recall, a Republican candidate could (even with a fairly small base of support) win the election that follows the recall. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• This fear has state Democrats considering putting a constitutional amendment before voters in 2022 that would alter the recall system — either allowing a governor in danger of a recall to run in the election to replace them, making recalls more difficult to trigger, or mandating that gubernatorial candidates win a majority of votes in order to be declared the winner of a recall election. [Fred Lucas / Fox News]
  

The EU unveils a new anti-pandemic strategy

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the creation of a new agency meant to battle — and prevent — future pandemics. The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, or HERA, was announced during her state of the union address on Wednesday. [NYT / Elian Peltier and Monica Pronczuk]
• The new agency will be a coordination point for the health authorities of EU member countries. “We have the innovation and scientific capacity, the private sector knowledge, we have competent national authorities,” von der Leyen said as she announced 50 billion euros in funding for the new agency by 2027. [European Commission]
• In Wednesday’s speech, von der Leyen also laid out the Commission’s plan to donate 200 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to low-income countries, in addition to the 250 million it has already pledged.  [Deutsche Welle]
• Europe’s slow start in vaccinating against the Covid-19 virus has sped up in recent months, with 70 percent of European adults now fully vaccinated. However, not all European countries have had successful vaccination drives; in Bulgaria, where only 20 percent of adults are vaccinated against the virus, more than 19,000 people have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic. [AP / Stephen McGrath]
• Von der Leyen didn’t detail the organizational structure of the new agency in her speech, but a May 2021 report from the Wellcome Trust and the Federation of European Academies of Medicine noted that HERA will be modeled on the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The new agency is to be mobilized in 2023. [FEAM / Wellcome Trust]

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“To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.”

[Simone Biles, testifying in front of the Senate about the sexual abuse — and its systemic cover-up — she suffered as a member of the US Gymnastics team]

President Joe Biden is taking a new approach to fight the pandemic. Former acting CDC director Richard Besser explains the vaccine mandates and the booster shot debate.  [Spotify]

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