The Basics Explained: The CA Governor Newsom Recall Initiative

So far, the campaign to recall CA Governor Newsom is on track to get “the signatures they need by a deadline of 17 March.[2] “To qualify the recall effort for the 2020 ballot, petitioners must collect 1,495,709 valid signatures, which is equivalent to 12% of the 12,464,235 votes cast in the last election for governor.[1]

If their efforts succeed, a recall election could be held before the end of the year…. It’s still extremely unlikely that a majority of Californians would choose to oust Newsom. State records show almost every California governor since 1960 has faced recall efforts, but only one – Gray Davis in 2003 – has been successfully removed”[2].

But “recalling a governor isn’t easy…. In California, since the recall got put into place back in 1911, there have been 49 efforts to recall a governor… Of that number, only one actually qualified and succeeded — and that was the only against Gray Davis back in 2003.”[1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/01/gavin-newsom-california-push-recall.

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/newsom-california-recall-signatures/index.html.

Recent ECU graduate Dennis Cherry is in first year of graduate school in Political Science at George Washington University. Dennis is not only doing well, but he made honor grades in first semester.

Congratulations Dennis!

Dr. Lockerbie has been exploring new methods to teaching statistical methods. He is making use of the open-source statistical program “R.” Using this program means that his students will not have pay any money to perform statistical analyses. Once they have downloaded the program, they do not need internet access to do the assignments. Lockerbie has been able to use the screen share function of Webex, to provide individualized tutorials to his students. Last, by using this program, he is preparing them to be competitive for data science jobs in politics, as this program is mentioned in more job ads than any other statistical program, including SAS, SPSS, and Stata.

With Michael Harris and Dennis Barber III, Sharon Paynter recently published “Regional Advisory Councils to Support Nascent Rural Entrepreneurs” in the Journal of Extension. 

Abstract: Traditional economic development efforts have been unable to address the nuances of rural communities. Entrepreneurship can be an important process and a vital component for building rural resiliency. As part of RISE29, a grant funded program, regional advisory councils have been established an act as a crucial extension tool for East Carolina University. The goal of these councils is to incorporate the narrative and discourse of the importance of entrepreneurship as a part of inclusive rural economic development strategies.

See https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol58/iss3/5/

Recent (BS Degree, Dec., 2020) Political Science alumnus  Jack Pendergraph recently learned he has been accepted into the Masters of Public Administration program at UNC-Chapel Hill for the fall of 2021.

Congratulations Jack!

In February, the ECU Center for Survey Research, directed by Dr. Peter Francia, issued a new report, “ECU Covid-19 Impact Survey: Impacts on Students During the Spring and Fall 2020 Semesters.” This new report is the center’s third such one to cover the impact of Covid-19 on East Carolina University. In this latest report, the focus is exclusively on ECU students. It examines changes in Covid-19 impacts from spring to fall 2020. The report is publicly available for download at https://surveyresearch.ecu.edu/impact-survey/.

This past fall, Dr. Daniel Xu invited a couple of local government officials to speak in his public budgeting and finance class. Included were budget director Kenneth Hunter of the City of Rocky Mount and the finance director Byron Haynes of the City of Greenville. Kenneth Hunter is on the Department’s MPA advisory board, and Haynes is an ECU political science alumn and ECU MBA – and works under another ECU MPA advisory board member Ann Wall, the city manager of Greenville.

Did You Know? Most questions that students have about degree and course requirements, their progress toward graduation, which requirements still need to be met, and more, can be answered by using the Degree Works worksheet. Simply log in to Pirate Port to get started using Degree Works:

While the Degree Works interface might seem intimidating at first, it is actually simpler than it appears.

For several easy-to-follow instructional videos, see: https://registrar.ecu.edu/degree-worksheet/.

Kyle Smithwick, B.S. Political Science (‘12) alumnus, is an ECU 2021 “40 Under Forty” Leadership Awards recipient. Smithwick’s #HarriotCollegeMajor is helping him #MakeADifference. He is an attorney who advises the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on immigration policy and legislation.
“My first job on Capitol Hill was with the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee on the National Security Subcommittee, where I learned how to run a congressional investigation,” Smithwick said. “This is the root of checks and balances that we learn about in civics class. Congress holds the Executive Branch accountable by rooting out fraud, waste and abuse. There is never a dull day.”
Smithwick said ECU prepares students with the tools to be good leaders and citizens.
“I was blessed to have exemplary mentors at ECU, both in my campus job and in political science. Those mentors helped guide me and are still my mentors now,” he said.
Smithwick encourages leadership in others, as is evidenced by his role in creating the Chancellor’s Student Leadership Academy at ECU, which helps students deepen their leadership knowledge.