San Clemente, California
Buoyed by his victory in last year’s recall election and eyeing an easy re-election in November, California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his presidential ambitions over the Fourth of July weekend. He challenged potential opponent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a television ad in the Sunshine State.
Cramming too many images into too little space, Mr. Newsom urged Floridians to flee to California “where we still believe in freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from hate and freedom to love.” Mr. Newsom followed that up with an interview with CNN in which he trash-talked Mr. DeSantis and urged Democrats to “fight them.”
Arrogance is a common disease for those who come from countries where the media is uncritical and political success is achieved without coercion. The sounds of “Cheers to the Chief” are enticing as staff in the governor’s office urge, “Boss, it’s your time.”
Mr. DeSantis and the other potential 2024 Republican candidates couldn’t be happier to welcome Mr. Newsom into the mix. Putting the spotlight on Mr. Newsom’s inept stewardship of what was once the Pearl of the Pacific will be a joy to campaign consultants and political action committee managers waiting to chew on yet another California cure — as they did with Kamala Harris in 2020
Once Mr. Newsom takes his show on the road, he will quickly find the attention that eluded him in California. His slick performer won’t play in the cornfields of Iowa, the snows of New Hampshire, or the towns of South Carolina. It is politically perverse that Mr. Newsom’s ad urges Floridians to come to California when his own constituents are leaving for more business-friendly and cultural climates in Florida, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere.
Mr. Newsom’s claim that he will “fight” the Republicans is laughable. His own record of failed leadership is ripe for exploitation. Days ago, 6 miles from the home I was raised in in Tulare County, the Highway Patrol arrested two suspected drug dealers with 150,000 fentanyl pills—enough to kill thousands. They were released on a warrant signed by a Tulare County Superior Court commissioner before Sheriff Mike Boudreau was informed or asked about the risks to public safety. He laid the blame squarely on “Gov. Newsom and California legislators who are really soft on crime — allowing people like this to be released from our facilities, we have no control over that.
Homicides in San Francisco are up 36% in two years, and the number of people injured by gun violence has nearly doubled. At least 10 Walgreens stores are closed due to shoplifting and burglary. Things are much the same in Los Angeles, where murders and armed robberies are on the rise and the city has lost 40,000 residents in the past year. Sections of the 405 freeway are embroidered with graffiti and concertina wire.
Residential electricity consumers in California pay 66% more than homeowners in the rest of the U.S. This, according to Robert Bryce, is due to “the devastatingly regressive effect of Sacramento’s decarbonization policies.” How long before Mr. Newsom’s opponents ask whether high utility costs are factored into the battle against the Republicans? The Illinois soybean grower will not identify with Mr. Newsom’s Napa vineyard, but instead will ask why diesel prices in California are approaching $7 a gallon.
Mr. Newsom’s supporters called the $200 million cost of the failed recall a “waste.” But his political opponents won’t overlook the even more egregious waste of $10 billion to $30 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits funneled to inmates by the governor’s Employment Development Department. “We are paying out hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of serial killers, rapists and child abusers,” Sacramento District Attorney Ann Marie Schubert wrote in a November 2020 letter to Mr. Newsom.
California’s farmland is drying up. Former Governor Jerry Brown’s high-speed “train to nowhere,” which Mr. Newsom still supports, robbed Central Valley farmers of their land. Mr. Newsom hasn’t fixed the state’s struggling public schools, but the issue isn’t personal because his children attend private schools while he toes the union line and opposes school choice. The governor of California is ex-officio president of the Regents of the University of California, but the “freedom” he touts to Floridians rings false. Conservatives on UC campuses often need police protection.
So don’t be surprised if Mr. DeSantis and others open the door for Mr. Newsom. The French Laundry restaurant does not deliver to Wheeling, W.Va., or Canton, Ohio. Mr. Newsom’s designer shirts won’t fit there either. He’ll have to learn to live with stale donuts, cold coffee, cynical reporters and PAC ads featuring San Francisco’s poop-filled streets with boarded-up stores and homeless encampments.
Maybe poking Florida’s eye with a stick wasn’t such a good idea.
Mr. Khachigian was President Ronald Reagan’s chief speechwriter and chief campaign strategist for California Governor George Deukmejian.
Wonderland: Like other world leaders who leaned toward blocking, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are now realizing how complex the private economy really is and how easy it is to screw it up. Images: AP/Shutterstock/Bloomberg/Zuma Press Composite: Mark Kelly
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