sacramento california california governor gavin newsom is suing the state elections chief he appointed in an effort to get his party affiliation to appear next to his name on the ballot for a recall election that will determine if the firstterm democrat is forced out of office the lawsuit against secretary of state shirley weber a fellow democrat came after newsoms campaign failed to file the appropriate paperwork newsom was supposed to indicate whether he wanted his party preference on the ballot back in february 2020 when he first responded to the recall petition that requirement was part of a new law he signed that took effect in january 2020 in the past politicians targeted in recalls werent allowed to have their party next to their names due to an inadvertent but good faith mistake on the part of his elections attorney newsom timely filed his answer but did not include his partypreference election reads the lawsuit which was first reported monday by courthouse news service webers office said it has a duty to accept timely filed documents and anything after the deadline requires judicial resolution the recall election driven by criticism of newsoms handling of the coronavirus pandemic is likely to be held in early fall the twopart ballot will first ask voters if they want to remove newsom from office and if so who should replace him the answers to the second question are only counted if more than 50 of people say yes to the first newsoms lawsuit argues that weber should accept his updated notification of his party preference because the recall hasnt been certified an election date hasnt been set his opponents havent filed their own paperwork and the ballots arent yet designed when newsom responded to the recall petition few believed it would generate enough signatures reach the ballot but with growing frustration over his onagain offagain shutdown orders during the pandemic support for the recall gained momentum and ultimately more than 17 million valid signatures were gathered a key event for newsoms critics was his decision to attend a birthday party for a lobbyist friend at a posh san francisco bay area restaurant when he was telling people to stay home socially distance and wear masks photos showed him unmasked and seated close to other guests republicans seeking to unseat newsom include former san diego mayor kevin faulconer businessman and unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial candidate john cox former us rep doug ose and reality tv personality caitlyn jenner though many voters know newsom is a democrat the paperwork error is an embarrassing mistake for his campaign which last year also failed to challenge a court ruling that gave recall proponents more time to collect signatures in late february 2020 political neophyte orrin heatlie filed a recall petition against newsom one of about a halfdozen that had been filed at that point newsom was required to respond to the petition and under the new law he was supposed to say if he wanted his party