California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s very bad month
NY Post
Restaurants, recalls and resistance are giving California Gov. Gavin Newsom one of the worst months of his political career.
California held its presidential primary election on Super Tuesday, March 5, but it was far from super for the state’s ambitious governor.
Voters showed more than a little resistance to passing the ballot measure Newsom had branded with his name and image in TV ads for which he had raised $20 million.
Given the razor-close outcome, what was really shocking was the amount spent to oppose the governor’s effort: nothing at all.
Proposition 1, a $6.38 billion bond measure in a state that already has $80 billion in bond debt and a $73 billion budget deficit, was the only state measure on the primary ballot this month.
That’s because Newsom pressed the legislature to defer all other bonds and proposals until November to give Proposition 1 the spotlight, and even to specially designate it as “Proposition 1” instead of the next number in sequence from the previous election.
