Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 23, 2021

Californias $276-million recall election on Sept. 14 consists of two questions. The first is, essentially, Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be given the heave-ho? The second is about who should replace him, and there are 46 people seeking to do just that who have qualified to be on the ballot.

Some of the people on the list are Jews.

I love San Francisco, its so beautiful, said Dan Kapelovitz, Green Party candidate and former San Francisco resident. The criminal defense lawyer is one of the three verified Jewish people on the list of candidates to replace Newsom if the vote to recall passes.

But Kapelovitzs position is actually that the governor shouldnt be recalled.

Im one of the few candidates campaigning vote no on the recall, he told J.

That said, he is balking at the way the California Democratic Party has asked people to not select anyone from the list of 46, which includes some of their own along with Republicans, Libertarians and independents. The Democratic Party is asking people simply to vote no on the first question, then skip the second one (or, as Newsom put it at a press conference: One question. One answer. No on the recall. Move on.)

I think thats really ridiculous and stupid, Kapelowitz said.

In fact, voters can answer either one of the questions, or both, or none. The Democratic Party has put forward no other big-name Democrat in order to stay (or at least appear) united.

Kapelovitz is running as a Green because he thinks the progressive ideas of that party are already things that a lot of left-leaning Californians agree with. He also supports ranked-choice voting, something he hopes would potentially weaken the hold the two big parties have on seats in California elections. One wouldnt know that from his candidate statement, however, which merely reads Can you dig it?

While there are several Republicans that have a chance of knocking Newsom out of the top spot, the one Republican known to be Jewish on the ballot is considered a long shot (he doesnt even make ripples on recent polls), even though his family is well known among chicken-eating Californians of a certain age. The Jewish Republican in question is Leo Zacky, a scion of the Zacky Farms family, purveyors of a familiar supermarket brand of poultry from their Fresno plant. (Historically, the farming of chickens and turkeys was a very Jewish industry in California, with hundreds of Jewish farming families in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the Petaluma region.)

According to the L.A.-based Jewish Journal, the patriarch of the family came to the U.S. in 1903 and got into the bird business. The family had membership at Boyle Heights iconic Breed Street Shul. Leo Zacky is a great-grandson who helped revitalize his familys brand after bankruptcy in 2012.

Hes running on a low-tax, low-business-regulation platform and is strongly against mandatory vaccinations for adults and children, lockdowns and mask mandates because he thinks Covid-19 is part of a global plan orchestrated by the World Economic Forum.

And then theres Angelyne, the blonde Los Angeleno known for the mammoth billboards regularly scattered around the city featuring herself.

As revealed by the Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Angelyne (formerly Renee Goldberg) is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Born in Poland, she lived in Israel before coming to Los Angeles and reinventing herself as a blonde bombshell famous for just existing.

This is actually the second time Angelyne has run for governor in a recall election. The pink-clad diva had thrown her hat into the ring in 2003 when Gov. Gray Davis was recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Her platform, as stated on her website, ranges from positions on solving homelessness (paid for by churches, mosques and temples) and tax reform to an annual masquerade ball for people to dress up like a governor! and a bubble bath day where everyone has to clean something. She is also pro-otter.

With three (at least) Jewish names on the recall ballot, that puts the percentage of Jewish candidates on this list at 6.5 percent, far higher than the almost 3 percent of Californians who are Jewish. (Based on census results, the states population is around 39.5 million, and Brandeis University estimates there are 1.17 million Jews in the state).

It may surprise some people that the 46 names on the ballot are so diverse. But it really doesnt take that much to qualify.

Candidates have to be a citizen registered to vote in California. They cant have been convicted of a felony for bribery or extortion. Theyve got to file a lot of paperwork, though, and submit at least 65 signatures and pay slightly more than $4,000. With 7,000 signatures, filing becomes free.

Recall attempts are common in California. People tried to recall Newsom six times between March 2019 and June 2020, failing each time to qualify for the ballot. But this time things are looking dicey for the governor.

While a recent poll found that keep the governor is polling at an average of 48.8 percent and remove the governor is polling at an average of 47.6 percent, the remove voters are highly motivated and eager to vote. Its estimated many on the keep side are unlikely to bother filling out a ballot on a topic they werent in support of voting on in the first place.

Because the replacement candidate with the most votes will take over if the recall vote passes, Newsom could wind up being replaced by someone who received, in numerical terms, a very small fraction of California votes.

The idea that itll be Leo Zacky, Dan Kapelovitz or Angelyne seems unlikely. But California politics are anything but predictable, and maybe next year well all be celebrating Bubble Bath Day.

Here is the original post:

Meet the eccentric Jews running in the recall election J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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