Buoyed by his victory in last year’s recall election and eyeing an easy re-election in November, California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his presidential aspirations over the July 4 weekend. He challenged potential challenger Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis with a TV ad in the Sunshine State. Cramming too many images into too little space, Mr. Newsom called on Floridians to flee to California, “where we still believe in freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from hate and freedom to love.” Mr. Newsom followed up with a CNN interview that trash-talked Mr. DeSandis and called on Democrats to “pick up the fight against them.” Hubris is a common disease for those who come from states where the media is uncritical and political success is achieved without pressure. “Hail to the Chief” executives are enticing, while the staff in the governor’s office said, “Boss, this is your time.” Mr. DeSantis and the other potential 2024 Republican candidates couldn’t be happier to welcome Mr. Newsom into the mix. Putting a magnifying glass on Mr. Newsom’s incompetent management of what was once the jewel of the Pacific will be a delight to campaign advisers and political action committee directors waiting to chew on another slight from California — as they did in Kamala Harris in 2020. Once Mr. Newsom takes his show on the road, he will quickly find the control that eluded him in California. Its smooth action won’t play in the cornfields of Iowa, the snows of New Hampshire, or the towns of South Carolina. It is politically perverse that Mr. Newsom’s ad is asking Floridians to come to California when his constituents are leaving for friendlier business and cultural climates in Florida, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere. Mr. Newsom’s claim that he will “fight” the Republicans is ridiculous. His own history of broken leadership is ripe for exploitation. Days ago, 6 miles from the house where I grew up in Tulare County, the Highway Patrol arrested two suspected drug dealers with 150,000 fentanyl pills — enough to kill thousands. They were released on a warrant signed by a Tulare County Superior Court commissioner before Sheriff Mike Boudreau was informed or questioned about the risks to public safety. He laid the blame squarely on the “Gov. Newsom and lawmakers in California who are too soft on crime—allowing people like this to walk free from our facilities, we have no control over that.” Homicides in San Francisco are up 36% in two years with the number of gun violence injuries nearly doubling. At least 10 Walgreens stores have been closed due to shoplifting and theft. It’s much the same in Los Angeles, where homicides and armed robberies are on the rise and the city has lost 40,000 residents in the past year. Sections of the 405 freeway are embroidered with graffiti and concertina wire. Residential electricity users in California pay 66% more than homeowners in the rest of the US. This, according to Robert Bryce, is due to the “disastrously regressive effect of Sacramento’s coal policies.” How long before Mr. Newsom’s opponents ask whether high utility costs factor into the battle with Republicans? The Illinois soybean farmer won’t identify with Mr. Newsom’s Napa vineyard, but he will ask why diesel prices in California are approaching $7 a gallon. Mr. Newsom’s supporters called the $200 million cost of the failed recall “a waste.” But his political opponents won’t overlook the even more shameful waste of $10 billion to $30 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits funneled to prisoners by the governor’s Department of Employment Development. “We are paying out hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of serial killers, rapists and pedophiles,” Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert wrote in a November 2020 letter to Mr. Newsom. California’s farmland is drying up. Former Governor Jerry Brown’s high-speed “train to nowhere,” which Mr. Newsom still supports, robbed Central Valley farmers of their land. Mr. Newsom hasn’t fixed the state’s public schools, but the problem isn’t personal because his kids attend private schools while he toes the union line and opposes school choice. The governor of California is the ex-officio president of the Regents of the University of California, but the “freedom” he touts to Floridians is false. Conservatives on UC campuses often need police protection. So don’t be surprised if Mr. DeSantis and others open doors for Mr. Newsom. The French Laundry restaurant does not offer delivery in Wheeling, W.Va. or Canton, Ohio. Mr. Newsom’s designer shirts won’t fit there either. He’s going to have to learn to live with stale donuts, cold coffee, cynical reporters and PAC ads with excrement-strewn San Francisco streets with boarded-up stores and homeless encampments. Maybe poking Florida’s eye out with a stick wasn’t such a good idea. Mr. Khachigian was chief speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and chief campaign strategist for California Governor George Deukmejian. Wonderland: Like other world leaders who leaned into lockdowns, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are now realizing how complex the private economy really is and how easy it is to destroy it. Images: AP/Shutterstock/Bloomberg/Zuma Press Composite: Mark Kelly Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
