Facing possible recall, Newsom under fire from fellow Democrats over COVID-19 response Taryn Luna and Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times Jan. 31, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail LOS ANGELES — There's an unspoken rule in politics: Don't publicly criticize your party's leader. But more California Democratic lawmakers and allies of Gov. Gavin Newsom are beginning to break it as frustration grows nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's like he's putting us out to die," said Sandra Díaz, vice president and political director of SEIU United Services Workers West, which represents janitors, security personnel and other essential workers who were recently removed from the state's vaccine priority tiers by the Newsom administration. "It's more important for us as a union to see this get better, no matter who that upsets."