The special election to recall Gavin Newsom has been scheduled for September 14, and until then the state will continue to waste taxpayer dollars on a pointless exercise that amounts to a few Republicans jacking themselves off and whining about Newsom's French Laundry dinner.

It's already a foregone conclusion that Newsom will not be recalled, and that California will not elect a Republican to the governor's office again anytime in the near future. But proponents of the recall effort are going to put us through this anyway, and John Cox will continue to spend his own money in order to hear himself talk. And as of today we know when the recall will happen.

As you may have already heard, this recall ballot will work like the last one in 2003 when Arnold Schwarzenegger successfully supplanted Gray Davis — there will be a two-part ballot, with the first question being "Do you want to recall Newsom?" and the second question being "If Newsom is recalled, who would you elect in his place."

And as you may have heard it still basically costs three dollars and box of Cracker Jacks to declare oneself a candidate.

Setting the September 14 date for the election was up to Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, following the certification of the recall petition signatures. This leaves 10 weeks for the rogue's gallery of candidates to run around the state "campaigning," if they so choose — and we know as of this week that Caitlyn Jenner's campaign has rented her a bus for this purpose.

Also, have you heard about Caitlyn's plan for dealing with the homeless? She would like to stick them all in "big open fields," out of sight, and tell them to stay there.

As KCRA points out, Republicans haven't won a statewide race since 2006, and pollsters have said this year, as the recall effort was taking shape, that in the era of Trump, Californians are even less likely to consider voting Republican — and the percentage of Republican registered voters in the state has shrunk in the last two decades from 35% to 24%.

Apart from Cox and Jenner, and porn star Mary Carey — who also ran in the last recall we had in 2003 — the only other recognizable name in the field of candidates so far is Kevin Faulconer, the former Republican mayor of San Diego. A popular conservative talk show host, Larry Elder, issued a statement Wednesday indicating that he is seriously considering running. And the field may grow a bit in the next week or so as candidates now have to declare their candidacy and file paperwork with the state no less than 59 days before the election.

One thing that may hold a few people back from running to replace Gavin is a new rule put in place this week by Secretary of State Shirley Weber: All candidates will need to submit five years of tax returns which will be made available for the public to see.

Related: Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox's Campaign Funded Almost Entirely by John Cox