Large financial contributions from several donors have energized the campaign to recall California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom.
An Irvine-based consulting firm gave $500,000 to the cause, which also received tens of thousands of dollars from several individuals, per Fox News.
An organization named Rescue California, frustrated with the Democrat's shutdown orders, circulated petitions that called for Newsom to be recalled and a special election to take place much sooner than the next scheduled governor's race in November 2022.
"Closing the beaches and closing the parks really was the beginning, that I saw on the ground, of the beginning of the end for him, as far as people taking the recall stuff seriously," said Anne Dunsmore, the campaign manager and finance director of Rescue California.
Rescue California needs at least 1,495,709 valid signatures to recall the governor. The group said it had approximately 800,000.
The attempt to recall Newsom started June 10. In November, a judge extended the signature deadline to March 17, 2021 after hearing arguments the COVID-19 pandemic hindered efforts.
Recent donors included Prov 3:9 LLC, which contributed $500,000, and Sequoia Capital's Douglas Leone and wife Patricia Perkins-Leone, who gave about $100,000.
"We have our beliefs in terms of the direction the state needs to go, and we felt that this effort was worthy of our contribution," Thomas Liu, listed as the manager of Prov 3:9, told Politico.
Newsom, in his first term, has not said if he plans to run again. He was credited for taking an aggressive approach to the coronavirus in the spring, when he issued the nation's first statewide stay-at-home order.
But more recent health orders have closed schools and businesses. The governor also has had to deal with an unemployment fraud scheme that duped state government into paying tens of millions of dollars to criminals.
Dunsmore said things climaxed in November when the governor attended a dinner party at exclusive Napa Valley restaurant French Laundry and did not follow his own COVID-19 protocols for the state.
Californians have attempted to recall their governor 55 times since 1911. The only successful bid was in 2003, when Arnold Schwarzenegger defeated Gov. Gray Davis in a special election.
California Republican Rep.-elect Darrell Issa's $2 million donation in 2003 helped gain attention to that case.
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