announcer: building a better bay area, moving forward, this is abc 7 news. kristen: i am kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers," live on hulu and wherever you stream. we are asking experts youry 3:o get answers for you in real time. today, we take you to lake tahoe aftercaort i fire". first, governor gavinarge enougu can see, with an estimated 64% of the votes in, almost a 2:1 margin. already, efforts are underway th california process for recalling state

officeholders. we will look at how our 110-year-old process began, but first, what was the key to ne wsom's victory? let's bring in the spokesperson of governor gray davis's recall that was successful, and it resulted in governor schwarzenegger. steve, joining us last night with our coverage, i hope you got some sleep and are doing ok today. sound asleep, right? steve: as a democrat, everybody got sleep last night. kristen: certainly, governor newsom did, because he got to keep his job, but did he do better or worse than expectations? steve: i think he blew away the confident statements. this was almost a 2:1 victory, and almost parallels the party registration this was always going to be an uphill battle for republicans.

they outnumber republicans two to one. there are also less republicans. he tracked very well among democrats, winning over 90% of them, and with that kind of number, it is almost impossible for a republican to win. kristen: ok, but there were concerns by polls that, perhaps, democrats were not show up for him. how did he get those numbers? steve:: think two words. larry elder. he was the perfect foil for the governor. he represented everything that californians dislike about republican political philosophy, particularly being the mirror image of donald trump on climate and women's rights, issues like the vaccine and mask mandates, and so that was just what the doctor ordered for gavin newsom, and he turned into the "

republican recall," which was the framing of the race. kristen: which regions were key for his victory, do you think? stevoure ye:ltves oof therl lat gubernatorial election, it is almost the same. coastal california is democratic. the inland areas are heavily republic. it is almost like a tale of two states when you look at those numbers, and they almost correspond exactly to what happened during the last election, so, presumably, it waa waste of money to do arial elec. kristen: yes, i am just going to pull up the 2018 election results for a comparison. the blue areas went to him, and then there is that yellow area. let's talk about the green in northern california in the inland central area, where he runs weaker. what about when he is up next year and the general election for reelection? steve: well, those areas in the

north, the so-called "state of jefferson," they often feel like they are not getting their fair share from sacramento in terms of funding and jobs. they have a different opinion, edit is not diverse and is different from the rest of the state. democratic traditionally have worked pretty hard to win the central valley. yes, there are a lot of interests that are republican, but it is increasingly diverse and increasingly latino, and i am interested in looking at some of the areas, bakersfield, fresno, some of because that was a soft spot for newsomk a big chunk of that vote in the last election, and democrats need to focus on the latino vote. kristen: that is a good point. i also want to look at the candidates, and he beat the recall, but take a look at this. larry elder, 46 percent, versus

kevin falconer, the moderate candidate, at only 9%, larry ce. of the general election next year? first, there will be a primary. you think republicans will go with someone like elder, who seems insurmountablett, ar maybe falconer? -- kev kev kev steve: they have not won statewide office in nearly 15 years, the governor's office being the exception before that, but the campaign, reason why the youtube star was isse teplican voters who were the no vote or the yes vote onhe t recall, they were

enthusiastic over larry elder, and, unfortunately, that is what the republican party of california has ie such a smallr that it is not nearly enoh ugtod who actually have governi experience off the ballot was key. and then there y woutubeas star. but what about in 2003, when governor davis, whom you were working,or f he had the lieutenant governor on the ballot, and do you think that really hurt him, or do you think because of schwarzenegger, it did not really make a difference? steve: a little bit of both. i think if we had that lieutenant governor on the ballot this time, t beenre a di. sure that everyone coalesced around the governor, they used the party machinery, with officials, labor unions. everybody got behind the

governor, so the really was no room at the end for a democratic challenge, and as you rightly noted, more than half of the voters did not even vote on the second half of the ballot, so there was really nothing to do there. kevin faulconer was reportedly the candidate they put up who would have some crossover. he has worked with the city council and has actually gotten some things done, but w the race sucks all of the energy out of that, and since demra wtsere vos no way for kevin flconer, le mlaherry erelder will be, and open primary, so all they need to do is get to the top two. kristen: that is true. alleect rionig, campaign begins today for governor newso twhhe exit polls as a guide? steve: well, i think he had a lot of success talking about mask mandates and the vaccine, his approach to that, but, you know, he is not out of the woods

here. he has g lll aotges.ot these wildfires, really just the beginning of fire season, over it is not going away anytime thl limping on, there is a lot of stuff going on in washington, but these are the 2022 midterm elections, elections that democrats do not typically turn out to, but they did last night, so let's see. talking about control of the senate, that is essentially what newsom ran on here, so i do not think we will see much of a campaign strategy change, but he will have to deal with some of these crises. kristen: what are some of items for democrats next year? steve: first of all, i do not think republicans want larry elder at the top of the ticket. those same congressional republicans could get reelected, and they will have to deal with independent voters and democrats. they will be drowned out with larry elder at the top of the ballot. i think the issues will be

similar to what we have now, with a little overlap with joe biden, struggling a little bit now. who knows what will happen by the time next june comes around, omy hh ueimal issth seeing republicans at the top, i do not think it ll be much in 2d trump gets heavily involved, and then it is a completely different story. kristen: we only have about 30 seconds left. yes, that would be different. democrats did not want this recall, republicans did, but would this produce a long-term benefits and insights for the party? steve: yes, i tweeted this not,e got a better governor out of this process. he was more engaged and jumped on things that were really important to californians right away, and there is an incredible machine that is up and running for an election that is just literally a few months away. he does not have to rebuild that. he has got a lot of money in the bank, big political advantages going into the election.

kristen: all right, strategist steven maviglio, thank you for your time today, yesterday, and in the weeks to come. steve: goodbye. kristen: coming up, we will talk about the recall

a day after governor newsom defeated the recall, democrats are already working to change the process that allows a state official to be removed from office. today, one assemblyman and a senator unveiled plans to fix what they called "a broken recall system," in joining us now to talk about the impact of our recall process is 18 of the

school of law at uc berkeley, and, professor, thank you so much for your time today. professor: my pleasure. kristen: so pollshow most voters like s havin t talking about tinheak tre areg at questions about whether the one we have now is optimal, so walk us through what the chief concerns seem to b nonpartisan perspective. professor: first, it is too easy to get a recall on the ballot. in california, it takes 12% of the number of people who voted in theelt ason otiecther statese recalls, there are 19 of them all together, usually 33% orn ve e%.40 second, we should not have the recall on a random tuesday in september, where there is going to be low turnout. it should be the next regularly scheduled election. third, we should not have a situation possible where

somebody who gets far less votes ends up being the governor. imagine yesterday that gavin newsom had lost, but had still gotten 48% or 49% of the vote, and a candidate with 25% would be governor? that makes no sense. it is anti-democratic, unconstitutional. all right, i just went to show people with our exclusive abc 7 election map, what you are talking about here. larry elder, people remember the 46%, but he got 46% of the people who voted, but he actually got to put one million people who said yes, i want larry elder to be my governor, but let's just take a look at this, right? out of the eight one 8 million recall votes counted so far, what? only 4.7 million actually put something down for a recall candidate, right? some 4 million people left it blank, and if you look at the know, it has 5.7

million, let's say that is for governor newsom, versant two point one million to larry elder. you know, governor newsom has two times, three times more than larry elder. however, you are talking about the system, where if this number, no, is 49% or less, that is it. the vote, you can become governor. is thatu a rri wtoyo as unconstihatutionalt t no other state does it that way? professor che there is anv --asy x. we can say if the governor looses for any other reason, the lieutenant governor takes over, or we could redesign this to say who should be the next governor but allow the existing governor

to be among those considered, and if the existing governor gets the most votes, stay on, but the problem with this, unlike changing the number of signatures, we are at a time now where there is a constitutional amendment, and that is much harder. kristen: indeed. that does take more voters. let's talk about the process. they are going to hold hearings and talk to people and have bipartisan workshops, but in the end, they need to put for somethatthg ballot that voters will have to vote for. prof. chemerisky: it is very important to separate the changes the legislature can do on their by statute as opposed to the changes that require a constitutional amendment. be dbyiring igmo sre statute. requiring more signatures to be listed as a candidate, that can be done by statute. but changing the way the ballot is constructed, if you would i tedju take a

constitutional amendment approved by the voters. ying. s: wyore the firseet part pks or someons menu. let's talk about why this did not become an issue after 2003, when governorised and governor schwarzenegger became governor. why was not a big deal made of this then? prof. chemerisky: reasons. some are that arnold schwarzenegg mot geor gray davio stay in office. almost 48% went to arnold schwarzenegger to take over as governor, so there was much less concerned about the recall process in that situation. also, iwas the first recall of a governor in california history. had it twice years, we realize it is just too easy. it is too expensive. and it does not make sense the way we do it. rs i dates back 110e a bit of pi

years. what was the process? prof. chemerisky: it was part of a curb restive- part of a progressive movement to give more control to the electorate. lawson constitutional amendments, -- laws and constitutional amendments. giving people the ability to recall a government official. there are only 19 states that allow a governor to be recalled by this kind of process, and it is easier in california than any other state. kristen: kind of a populist movement, right to, to curve big business, i think -- to curb big business, i think southern pacific railroad. what about the big guys and corporations and special interests? prof. chemerisky: well, for initiatives, i think it did that, because the ability of corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money supported ballot initiatives. we saw that in the november 2020 election. prop 22, where companies like uber and lift -- lyft

enormous amounts of money to get a change in the law. also, what we are seeing with the recall is something different. i think what happened here is the republican party did not think it had a good chance of defeating gavin newsom in the november 22 elections and got a recall would be their best opportunity to do so, and i worry that there is more of a sentiment now that with a close election, they may try to undo it by recall. kristen: i wonder about the funding of the campaigns, for example, some, especially republicans, who criticize the amount of money that governor newsom was able to raise through the fact that it was due to a recall, the yes and no, not to a candidate but to an issue. is that a loophole on the other end that needs closing? prof. chemerisky: yes, but it cannot happen. i am very concerned about so many aspects of money in our election system, the united

states supreme court has interpreted the first amendment to give the right of people to spend as much as they want with regard to election campaigns and independent expenditures, and it is true of individuals. it is true of corporations. unless the supreme court were to change that, they are not going to, there is not much we can do with money in recall elections. kristen: all right. you were talking about ways to make the recall process more constitutional, if you will. i think governor gray davis, the ousted governor, talked about perhaps framing adjust as a question, write, like who shall serve out the remainder of the term, including the current office that would be allowed, and what do you think about that, because i know this time, you could not even write in governor newsom's name. prof. chemerisky: i think it is great, and if therea s illcare, existing governors, they would be there, and so would all of

the challengers. whoever gets the most votes xtmeco ibes th sained, change in a simple way. if the governor is recalled, let the lieutenangoif he is impeach, the vice president takes over, and why not use that question where i find with any of those, what i want to see is we never be in a situation like where you described in your graphics, where we could have more people want a governor to stay in officer than a challenger, and yet, the challenger ends up taking over. kristen: professor, there are a lot of people, including the officeholders themselves, who vr lieutenant governor. perhaps this is the time to utilize that to launch into the conversation. thank you for your time. prof. chemerisky: truly my coming up next, we will head to lake tahoe, where evacuees are returning, and so are tourists, so what

the caldor fire continue to get lifted, and full containment is expected in a few weeks, but even though that was relegated to the south lake tahoe area, that was the main area of concern, the entire region has certainly been impacted, both for the residence and the businesses that count on tourists. joining us right now to talk about returning to lake tahoe is the president and ceo of incline village,re. andy, -- andy, thank you for taking the time. nice to have you. andy: thank you. kristen: lake tahoe was in the crosshairs, and you are on the other site of the lake, and i know there is late summer and early fall. talk about that. what has been the impact on you? andy: yes, the whole region got impacted.

about half of the tahoe population was evacuated, the geographic area, and it was over the important labor day holiday, but we all felt around the region that it was just not appropriate to ask visitors to come up at the time. we really needed to take the roads open for evacuation opportunities, as well as emergency vehicles, so we went out with the message that now is not the time to travel to tahoe, north lake tahoe, but, meanwhile, these firefighters have done an amazing job with this fire and taking care of it, and we are at a point now where we can open back up, and things are looking significantly better than they were. there are still some warnings. south and our partners there, we certainly support where they are doing down there, but now is the time to invite guests back and hopefully get some of those rebooked vacations that had been canceled over the last couple of weeks. kristen: so is the smoke good

now? i know i, myself, looked at going to incline for parasailing, and i had to cancel because of the horrible air quality index. how are conditions now? andy: yes, we were getting some pretty high aqi hundred, but we are thi i we are at about 71 or so, so moderate. it does chang better.e. the afternoons, i think we will see that pattern for the next couple of weeks. kristen: the things we enjoy doing in tahoe at this time of year, whether it is boating or hiking, that is all possible now, right? andy: yes, there are a forest restrictions still in place, and we think those may be relaxed in the next couple of days. some of the california restrictions have been pulled down, but some of those will be

in place. we just ask people to be flexible and have patience so you understand what is going on and be adjustable in your travel plans. kristen: any work being done now to protect north shore from future fires? andy: you know, there is a lot of work that the tahoe region agency is doing and the fire team it. that is one of the reasons that it really helped south shore to stop the progression of the fire, was a lot of work that was done, and that work continues around the lake and has for a number of years. i think it certainly may, as well. kristen:

kristen: thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, "getting answers."

e looked at whapphat enom won te recall and about the future. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on livestream, answering your questions. tonight, several developing stories as we come on. the olympic gymnasts and their very difficult andwh tnfheai pyo happen. and the major news tonight oern e shots. tonight, the fda now releasing the numbers on pfizer. and news on moderna, toogut-wre testimony from some of america's top olympic gymnasts simone biles and aly raisman testifying before congress, saying they were betrayed by fbi agents. they say they buried their sexual abuse allegations against former team doctor larry nasser, allowing for 100 additional victims. tonight, fbi