The California governor recall election on September 14 is "in large degree, a referendum on Gavin Newsom's handling of Covid," says UCLA public policy professor Jim Newton. "Businesses have suffered, people have lost jobs, people have lost places to live. The government has done a great deal to try to ameliorate that, but there's been suffering, and any time there's suffering, I would say that incumbents suffer along with constituents." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES