San Clemente, California
Encouraged by his victory in last year’s by-elections and looking toward an easy November re-election, California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his presidential ambitions over the weekend of July 4th. He challenged potential opponent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a television commercial in Sunshine State.
Filling too many images in too little space, Mr. Newsom called on Floridians to flee to California, “where we still believe in freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from hatred, and freedom to love.” Mr. Newsom continued with an interview on CNN talking to Mr. DeSantis and called on Democrats to “bring them the fight.”
Huris is a common disease for those who come from states where the media is not critical and political success is achieved without coercion. The rhythms of “Hello to the Chief” are appealing as the staff in the governor’s corner office say, “Boss, this is your moment.”
Mr. DeSantis and the other potential Republican candidates of 2024 couldn’t be happier to welcome Mr. Newsom in the mix. Put a magnifying glass on the inept management of Mr. Newsom of what was once the jewel of the Pacific will be a joy for campaign consultants and political action committee managers waiting to chew on another California lightweight, as they did with Kamala Harris in 2020.
Once Mr. Newsom make his show on the road, he will quickly find the scrutiny that has escaped him in California. His back act will not touch the cornfields of Iowa, the snows of New Hampshire, or the cities of South Carolina. It is politically perverse that Mr. Newsom is asking Floridians to come to California when their own voters march toward friendlier business and cultural climates in Florida, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere.
The statement of Mr. Newsom that “will bring the fight” to the Republicans is laughable. Its own collapsed leadership record is ripe for exploitation. A few days ago, 6 miles from the house where I grew up in Tulare County, the road patrol arrested two suspected drug traffickers with 150,000 fentanyl pills, enough to kill thousands. They were released on an order signed by a Tulare County High Court commissioner before Sheriff Mike Boudreaux was informed or asked about public safety risks. He directly blamed the “Gov. Newsom and California lawmakers who are very lenient with crime, allowing people like this to be released from our facilities, we have no control over that.”
Homicides in San Francisco have risen 36 percent in two years and the number of people injured by gun violence has almost doubled. At least 10 Walgreens stores have closed for burglaries and robberies. Things are very similar to Los Angeles, where homicides and gun robberies are on the rise, and the city lost 40,000 people last year. Sections of Highway 405 are embroidered with graffiti and concertina wire.
Residential electricity users in California pay 66% more than homeowners in the rest of the United States. This, according to Robert Bryce, is due to “the ruinous regressive effect of Sacramento’s decarbonization policies.” How long before Mr.’s opponents. Newsom ask if high utility costs are included in bringing the fight to Republicans? The Illinois soybean grower will not identify with Mr. Napa’s vineyard. Newsom, however, will ask why California diesel prices are approaching $ 7 a gallon.
Supporters of Mr. Newsom called the $ 200 million cost of the failed withdrawal a “waste.” But his political opponents will not overlook the even more embarrassing waste of $ 10,000 to $ 30 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits that the governor’s Department of Employment Development handed out to prisoners. “We are paying hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of serial killers, rapists and child abusers,” Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert wrote in a November 2020 letter to Mr. Newsom.
California farmland is drying up. The high-speed “train to nowhere” of former Governor Jerry Brown, which Mr. Newsom still supports, stole their land from Central Valley farmers. Mr. Newsom has not fixed the state’s troubled public schools, but the problem is not personal because his children go to private schools while he follows the union line and opposes the choice of school. The governor of California is the ex-president of the Regents of the University of California, but the “freedom” he promoted to Floridans sounds false. Conservatives on UC campuses often need police protection.
So don’t be surprised if Mr. DeSantis and the others open the doors to Mr. Newsom. French Laundry Restaurant does not deliver to Wheeling, W.Va. nor in Canton, Ohio. The design t-shirts of Mr. Newsom doesn’t fit either. You’ll have to learn to live with rancid donuts, cold coffee, cynical journalists, and PAC ads with stool-filled San Francisco streets with walled shops and homeless camps.
Maybe puncturing Florida’s eye with a stick wasn’t such a good idea.
Khachigian was chief speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan and chief campaign strategist to California Gov. George Deukmejian.
Wonder Land: Like other world leaders who leaned toward the blockades, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are realizing how complicated the private economy really is and how easy it is to destroy it. Images: AP / Shutterstock / Bloomberg / Zuma Press Composite: Mark Kelly
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