That is interesting. From what I recall of media coverage at the time, it didn't seem as if the outcome was going to be in doubt. Of course, I was in Oakland at the time. We once had a Republican neighbor up the street, judging by the yard signs they'd put up, but they moved out about 10 years earlier.
I did a series of pieces for CapRadio on recalls in California around that time.
I learned some fascinating (to me, anyway) things doing the research for that piece. There were three recall drives against Ronald Reagan when he was Governor of California---the first one launched only four months after he took office.
There were five against Jerry Brown the first time he was governor (1975-83),
eleven (the record) against George Deukmejian ('83-'91), seven against Pete Wilson ('91-'99), and three against Gray Davis ('99-'03---the last attempt is the one that got him out of office.
Also seven against Arnold Schwarzenegger ('03-'10), and five against Jerry Brown the second time around ('11-'19).
And there have been seven against Gavin Newsom in the last five years.
All told, there have been 55 attempts to recall Governors of California in the last 111 years.
Two have made it to the ballot. Only one resulted in the recall and removal of a governor.
Why so lopsided? Because the bar is low to start a recall drive. You only need 50 verified signatures from registered voters.
But the next step is tougher. To qualify for the ballot, you have to have verified signatures equal to or greater than 12% of the number of votes cast for the official in the previous election.
That means a recall against Governor Newsom today would need 776,411 verified signatures, and they have 160 days---just under six months---to collect those signatures.
Better get close to a million to offset people who aren't registered, signed more than one petition or wrote in a fake name.
And
IF you accomplish that and get on the ballot, you've got to come up with the compelling argument to throw out a sitting governor before the end of his/her term.
You also have to answer some tough questions. In 2021, some of the organizers of the Newsom recall were also vocal opponents of the first Donald Trump impeachment, on the grounds that it was an attempt to overturn the will of the voters. That put them in a tough spot when asked how the recall was any different, apart from the lack of any alleged high crimes and misdemeanors.