Halfway through his first term in office, the Democratic governor of the country’s populated state is controlling a pandemic that has paralyzed the southern half of California since Thanksgiving. The pandemic gave the Republicans, who had long been on the sidelines in this heavy-handed Democratic state, a rare opportunity to injure him. And Newsom is keeping the state – and its own political future – intact.
“People are really pissed off,” said Ted Costa, the anti-tax crusader who was the original proponent of the Davis remembrance. He signed Newsom reminder papers last week in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Thousand Oaks. “Things can get hot quickly, and I do not know if Newsom realizes what happens when a pothole hits.”
For Newsom, an ambitious Democrat with a national profile, the extent of the problem is unclear. The last Republican to win a California government election was Arnold Schwarzenegger, and that was almost 15 years ago. When Newsom won the governorship in 2018, he carried the state by nearly 24 percentage points. His public approval rating last year was 60 percent.
Yet the pandemic has worsened over the past few weeks. And the frame of reference by which Californians view Newsom is going to change dramatically when Joe Biden replaces Donald Trump in the White House. No longer benefiting from a credible foil in Washington, the standard of public approval for Newsom and Democratic governors across the country is likely to be raised.
“During the last few years during Newsom’s tenure, people have said that the country is going in the wrong direction and that the state is going in the right direction compared to the country,” said Mark Baldassare, a veteran voter and president of the Public Policy Institute of California. Now, without a Republican president to judge Newsom against, he said, “It definitely changes that point of contrast.”
Newsom met the growing virus and its economic consequences with a series of proposals aimed at helping the most vulnerable Californians and getting school children back into the classroom. Last month, he proposed a $ 2 billion effort to reopen elementary schools for the state’s youngest students, with extra protective equipment and testing. Earlier last week, Newsom suggested that the state’s low-income employees give $ 600 “quick cash” grants. And as a boon to his political fortunes, the state’s budget, despite serious predictions, is so sound that Newsom on Friday unveiled a budget proposal that would require record spending while adding billions of dollars to the state’s reserve accounts.
But good news was scarce in California, and Newsom was not without flaws. He got into a drink after attending a dinner for a political adviser at the luxury restaurant The French Laundry – a liability not just because Newsom is enjoying his evening out while discouraging Californians from getting together for the holidays. so deftig. Californians who would otherwise no longer mock him weeks ago just had more cause for frustration amid the worsening conditions of the pandemic.
“In the city of Los Angeles and in our country, Covid-19 is now everywhere and infecting more people than ever,” the city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, said at a gloomy news conference on Thursday night.
Garcetti, a Democrat who came under public pressure similar to those facing Newsom, blamed the federal government, not the state, for delays in the distribution of vaccines. But Newsom is criticized by others for being too slow to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine, something the federal government has left to states.
“I don’t think Californians can understand why we put hundreds of thousands of doses in there, and it’s not being administered,” said Garry South, a Democratic strategist who advised Newsom’s 2010 government campaign and was a senior adviser to Davis. . “California has been through almost ten months of hell, and now there may be a light at the end of the tunnel with these vaccines – but it does no one any good if it is not administered.”
“You have to get these vaccinations in the arms of people,” he said.
Like other Democrats, Newsom blamed the Trump administration for the slow explosion of vaccines, and last week he joined the Democratic governors of seven other states by pressuring federal health officials to release more doses. And in the new government in Washington, Newsom will provide assistance. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who will be sworn in this month to fill the seat of Elected Vice President Kamala Harris, said in an interview that he intends to make ‘Covid, Covid, Covid’ his top priority. – and will work immediately to get Newsom the help he needs.
At the federal level, Padilla said: “We know vaccines have been approved, but we are still nowhere near where we need to be in terms of production volume.”
For Newsom’s political purposes, the sooner the better. For years, Republicans’ messages about taxes, regulations, and social issues in government politics have collapsed here, a reflection of California’s overwhelming Democratic voters. But the coronavirus is a bonanza for Newsom’s critics and provides an opening for anti-Newsom broadlines that may resonate outside the base of the Republican Party.
“In the midst of this pandemic, with so many people hurt and now out of work, … we have 500,000 Californians who can’t get an unemployment check,” said Kevin Faulconer, former mayor of San Diego, who started a government this week. exploratory committee. ‘How many parents are frustrated when they want to see most private schools run and run, and yet our public schools could not reopen safely? This is unacceptable. ”
He and other Republicans point to Newsom as a guideline on the pandemic – a story that, despite constraints, is being aided by the rise in affairs. “Look, all we heard – all year – from Gavin Newsom was that once we got the vaccine, all the problems would be solved, the blockage would end, and we could return to normal life here in California,” said Jennifer Kerns. a conservative talk show host and former IDP spokesman. “And that has not been the case yet.”
Joe Rodota, a former Republican strategist who left the party because of Trump’s influence and once served as deputy chief of staff to former government Pete Wilson, said: “It all fell apart.”
Against the background, the pressure to recall Newsom is gaining steam. Although recall efforts are regularly pitted against governors and rarely qualify for the vote, proponents of the anti-Newsom effort said Tuesday that they have exceeded 1 million signatures – about two-thirds of the number they need for a by-election later this year. to force – in part by requesting signatures by mail from Republicans and independent voters. The attempt recently drew a $ 500,000 donation from a donor in Orange County who objected to Newsom’s orders to restrict religious gatherings due to the coronavirus.
Dave Gilliard, the Republican strategist who helped orchestrate Davis’ recall in 2003 and advises the Newsom recall effort, set the chance of qualifying for the vote at 80 to 85 percent.
“It has really slowed down over the last few months,” he said, attributing the increase to what he calls “French laundry.”
Newsom’s advisers are paying attention to the recall effort, conducting interviews and calling the proponents of recall ‘pro-Trump extremists’. Dan Newman, Newsom’s chief political adviser, said: “The recall effort is mainly fueled by the same hatred, misinformation and disrespect for democracy that led to domestic terrorists storming the Capitol.”
The Republican defeated by Newsom in 2018 defeated Faulconer and John Cox, and Newman said: ‘Trump’s California acolytes like Kevin Faulconer and John Cox are marching in the final step with the president, blindly following his example by refusing to the will of the voters. ”
But Newsom’s advisers do not advertise or hold press conferences, but they do not tend to air an initiative that they say is unlikely to qualify without a significant addition of extra money. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. to ensure they have enough valid signatures means they will probably have to collect more than the number.
And if the revocation initiative does qualify for the ballot, revoking Newsom is a much bigger task. Republicans make up less than a quarter of California voters. And by the time of any by-election, which would take place only months after the signatures were submitted, the vote of voters – who could then possibly be vaccinated – could improve dramatically.
For now, Davis said he expects Newsom to focus heavily on promoting the vaccine, which he says ‘people’ should give the impression that this pandemic is finally coming to an end. And in general, given the challenges of the pandemic, Davis said Newsom had “done a remarkable job.”
“There’s a reason why his public approval rating is still in the mid to high 50s,” Davis said. “He is completely transparent. He explains why he’s going to do something. He tells you if it has been achieved, and if not, why not. And I think there’s an engaging trait to him that voters like. ‘