For years, Gavin Newsom had a Midas touch. He legalized same-sex marriage in San Francisco, and later the U.S. Supreme Court put a stamp of approval on the controversial move. He committed a sort of sacrilege by contesting the 2010 primary election against the almost sainted (among California Democrats) Jerry Brown, then settled for lieutenant governor and went on to become governor in 2018. And more.<\/p>\n
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Things look different for Newsom today, after 10 months of the coronavirus pandemic, his continued failure to act against big utilities while they keep causing wildfires and the elevation of his old friend Kamala Harris to America\u2019s vice president-elect.<\/p>\n
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Whatever choices he makes now seem to cause him trouble. Start with his conducting almost daily televised updates on COVID-19, which leaves him woefully overexposed. Rather than stepping in with comforting words and occasional actions to ease the crisis for Californians, Newsom has come to be regarded by many as a sort of prison warden or spokesman for the disease, which has so far killed about 20,000 Californians and closed myriad businesses.<\/p>\n
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California voters have a long habit of dumping overexposed politicians, a threat Newsom faces today, due for reelection in less than two years and facing a recall movement that claims to have collected more than half the 1.495 million signatures needed to force a special election.<\/p>\n
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Among the overexposed, Brown served two terms as governor in the 1970s, then was beaten for the Senate in 1980. Once his father Pat Brown had served two terms, Republican Ronald Reagan retired him in 1966, long before governors had term limits.<\/p>\n
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Now Newsom must make appointments to at least two major offices, and possibly as many as four within the next month. He\u2019s under pressure from ethnic groups of all types in this day of identity politics. Latino groups claim he must appoint one of them to the U.S. Senate seat Harris will vacate. If he anoints California\u2019s Latino secretary of state Alex Padilla, he\u2019ll be vilified by groups saying a black woman has to get the job.<\/p>\n
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These people don\u2019t mention naming the best possible senator or one with a shot of winning election on their own; only of naming people with particular ethnicities and skin colors. Newsom also must appoint a replacement for Xavier Becerra as state attorney general once Becerra becomes President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s secretary of Health and Human Services. And if Newsom makes a senator of his friend and early supporter Padilla, he\u2019ll have to name a new secretary of state. There\u2019s also the real possibility California\u2019s other U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, will retire at 87, and also need replacing.<\/p>\n
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Whatever Newsom does, he\u2019ll make many people unhappy.<\/p>\n
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But it would be poor form for Newsom to resign suddenly as governor, letting Lt. Gov. Elena Kounalakis replace him and then put him in the Senate. Folks who pull that maneuver rarely win later on their own.<\/p>\n
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Then there are Newsom\u2019s own missteps. No governor could look much worse than Newsom did when he joined high-priced lobbyist friends last fall in a soiree at Napa County\u2019s Michelin-starred, hyper-expensive French Laundry restaurant. After warning Californians not to eat indoors at restaurants or to participate in gatherings of more than 10, Newsom was caught with a party of 12 in a space that could barely be considered outdoors.<\/p>\n
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This slimed him with the hypocrite label no politician wants. But Newsom still can redeem himself with voters. He apologized for the French Laundry embarrassment, just as he earlier did for a years-ago affair with his former best friend\u2019s wife. He\u2019s certainly no saint, but that has not yet hurt him at the polls. He also has time to clean up the many problems and scandals at the state\u2019s unemployment department.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, it\u2019s possible a recall (if it happens) and his quick French Laundry apology can leave him stronger than before. For one thing, a recall election in 2021 would put Newsom into campaign mode early and likely get many voters accustomed to backing him.<\/p>\n
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So it\u2019s premature, at the very least, to dismiss Newsom as doomed because of his mistakes and the dicey choices he faces.<\/p>\n
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\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
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Env\u00eda un correo electr\u00f3nico a Thomas Elias a tdelias@aol.com. Su libro, \u201cThe Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government\u2019s Campaign to Squelch It\u201d (El Gran Avance de Burzynski, el Tratamiento contra el C\u00e1ncer M\u00e1s Prometedor y la Campa\u00f1a del Gobierno para Sofocarlo), ya est\u00e1 disponible en una cuarta edici\u00f3n de tapa blanda. Para m\u00e1s columnas de Elias, visita www.californiafocus.net.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years, Gavin Newsom had a Midas touch. He legalized same-sex marriage in San Francisco, and later the U.S. Supreme Court put a stamp of approval on the controversial move. He committed a sort of sacrilege by contesting the 2010 primary election against the almost sainted (among California Democrats) Jerry Brown, then settled for lieutenant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-6472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-government"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}