May 1, 2023

Thousands of scathing op-eds and blog posts have appeared about our sick puppy in the White House. Residents of California, however, should probably be more concerned about their current governor, Gavin Christopher Newsom. After all, he plans to toss his hat in the 2024 ring as Biden’s replacement.

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So what are Newsom’s qualifications? Judging by what Amy Tikkanen says in her recent biographical sketch on the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Newsom was gifted at sports and later attended  Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship…. In 1989 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science.”

Only three years later, Newsom made a giant leap from academic rags to millennial riches by opening PlumpJack Winery, a store in San Francisco. “One of his investors,” Tikkanen explains, “was family friend Gordon P. Getty, the son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. The venture proved highly profitable, and Newsom expanded it to include bars, wineries, restaurants, and hotels. The various enterprises made him a millionaire.” Well, there’s one good thing: Newsom has some very wealthy connections.

His next move, of course, was to get into politics by volunteering on Willie Brown’s successful campaign for mayor. From that point on, it was ‘Katie bar the door.’

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In 2004, Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco and instantly made national news by “authorizing city officials to issue same-sex marriage licenses, in defiance of state law.” That was certainly another useful trait: He had no qualms about breaking the law.

In 2009, Newsom took his first shot at running for governor of California. Failing at that, in 2011, he ran for and won the office of lieutenant governor under Jerry Brown. Yet another useful trait: Newsom knows all about hanging onto political coattails.

Both Brown and Newsom were re-elected in 2014. Since Brown couldn’t run again in 2018, Tikkanen observed, “Newsom coasted to victory” in the general election and took office in 2019. One of Newsom’s first executive orders as governor was to do away with the death penalty. He was, after all, raised as a good Catholic boy and knew all about virtue signaling. The die, as it were, was cast for this burgeoning Machiavelli.

With the onset of COVID-19, Newsom became the first state governor to impose draconian masking and stay-at-home rules. Nothing like flexing your muscles once you’re in office. This time, though, when Newsom and his friends were caught dining maskless at the French Laundry restaurant in San Francisco, a recall election was triggered. “Newsom easily survived the recall,” Tikkanen smugly concludes.

As Yogi Berra often said, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.” There’s much more to the noisome Newsom story.

Let’s take a look at an unbowdlerized version. In the March 15-21, 2023 issue of the Epoch Times, columnist John Seiler wrote an article titled “The Real State of the State of California.” Seiler explained that, instead of making the customary State of the State report from Sacramento this year, Newsom would be “giving a series of talks around the state touting what he calls the California Way.” But what,” Seiler asks, “is the real State of the State in California?”