It’s obvious that Gavin Newsom is running for Joe Biden’s job on the assumption that the geriatric mediocrity will not run for re-election or that he can be defeated if he does run. Polls show that a majority of Democrats would rather someone else head the ticket in 2024, after all. And veteran political reporter Mark Halperin has a column citing anonymous White House insiders on the possibility Biden won’t run.
Meanwhile, Newsom is out touring red states and attacking Republicans, especially Ron DeSantis. Half a minute video.
He’s also announced something grandiosely titled The Campaign for democracy, focuse don how red states are denying your freedom (never mind keeping California schools closed longer than any other state and hindering the use of ivermectin for Covid). This is almost 2 minutes, so your patience may be tested.
Given his awful track record in California, driving away half a million residents in just the last 2 years – managing to see California’s population actually decline for the very first time ever -- it’s clearly in his advantage to go in the offense.
But now, he has gone further. He is hampering media access to information on California’s state government. CalMatters reports:
Like so much else about California, its state government is large: A $300 billion budget. More than 230 departments and agencies. More than 234,000 employees.
Keeping the public apprised of everything that’s happening in that massive bureaucracy requires its own small army of communications staff, who craft messages, write press releases and answer questions from journalists covering everything from the governor to welfare programs, prisons to water policy.
Lately, however, the information isn’t flowing as freely — raising transparency concerns among the press corps that acts as a watchdog for Californians.
Last month, the Capitol Correspondents Association of California, which represents journalists who cover the state Capitol and advocates for improved press access, distributed guidelines to its members about how to handle some of the increasingly common hurdles they encounter, including government agencies asking for questions in advance and refusing to attribute information to their spokespeople. (snip)
[T]he extraordinary step was prompted by years of complaints from Capitol press about problems reporting on Gov. Gavin Newsom, his administration and the Legislature.
Newsom is a human Potemkin Village – all façade. Underneath the Brylcreem-rich hairdo he sports, there is no substance.
He publicly admits to dyslexia, but a veteran political observer of California avers to me that he is functionally illiterate, which might be a first of a president if, God forbid, he ever makes it to the White House. He is very pretty, I admit, though I am no expert on male beauty. But that, and the sponsorship of the Getty fortune, is all he has.
Photo credit: Grabien screengrab