For much of the past year, conservatives have considered Gov. Gavin Newsom of California a perfect symbol of liberal excess, a well-coifed coastal governor with national aspirations whose state seemed to embrace undocumented immigrants while homeless encampments proliferated on the streets.
It was Mr. Newsom who was invited to debate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Fox News last November. It was Mr. Newsom whose political action committee ran ads in Republican states to criticize their policies on abortion rights.
But Mr. Newsom, a business owner, often governs more from the middle than his critics acknowledge. And over the past month, as he has sifted through hundreds of bills that the heavily Democratic Legislature sent his way to sign or veto by this Monday, his decisions indicate a more centrist shift than usual.
With Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator from California, in a hotly contested race for the White House, Republicans have aimed a spotlight on her and Mr. Newsom’s home state. As such, the governor has been under pressure to make sure that California’s lawmakers don’t give them more ammunition for political attacks.
The national political stakes are high
Mr. Newsom approved many measures that were in keeping with what most Americans would expect in California. There were big bills to address the state’s ongoing housing crisis; labor bills to protect the earnings of child influencers and the likenesses of Hollywood performers; and an outright ban on all plastic bags at retail stores.
There was legislation to name the Dungeness crab as the official state crustacean, the banana slug as the official slug, and the black abalone as the official seashell. There was a bill pushed by celebrities like Woody Harrelson and Whoopi Goldberg that will allow Amsterdam-style “cannabis cafes” to open.There was a measure that will require health insurers to cover infertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization, as Democrats have attacked Republicans nationally for restricting access to fertility services.
But the governor, despite cracking down on digital abuses such as deepfakes, also vetoed a first-in-the-nation plan to regulate artificial intelligence amid pushback from the tech industry. He frustrated environmentalists by rejecting warning labels on gas stoves. He blocked free condoms in high schools.
And his legislative allies saw to it that a landmark exploration of cash reparations for Black Americans was whittled down to an apology for enabling slavery, as California faces another budget deficit.
The moderating strategy partly reflects California’s political diversity: Registered Democrats dominate the electorate, but pockets of conservatism run through the agricultural Central Valley, some inland suburbs and the far north part of the state. And California governors have historically been a check on Democratic legislators on spending and bills that reach furthest to the left.
But more moderation also serves Democrats and Mr. Newsom’s own legacy in the height of a high-stakes election. California, with its immense wealth and poverty, diversity and social tensions, has often served as a proxy for national Democratic leadership.
This year, Republicans have sought to attack Ms. Harris by tarnishing her home state.
“We cannot allow comrade Kamala Harris and the communist left to do to America what they did to California,” former President Donald J. Trump proclaimed at a recent appearance in Los Angeles County. As Mr. Trump spoke, the coastal fog gave way to California sunshine and the Pacific Ocean sparkled spectacularly. No matter. California was “a mess,” he said.
By this calculus, any talking point against California that Mr. Newsom can bat away is a win for Ms. Harris — and, if she loses in November, for his own political future.
Eliminating political vulnerabilities
Mr. Newsom has come under personal attack from Mr. Trump, who has called the governor names and blamed him for the state’s woes. Mr. Newsom has largely ignored such mockery and suggested that the former president is being immature.
But Mr. Trump’s attacks have resonated with his own supporters and with moderate voters who believe that California — and, by extension, Ms. Harris — remain too liberal. Mr. Newsom himself has acknowledged that retail theft and homeless encampments have reached a tipping point.
In recent weeks, Mr. Newsom signed Republican-backed measures that toughen penalties for retail theft and human trafficking of children. The governor also signed new punishments for those who participate in street-racing “takeovers” and “sideshows.”
As Republicans have slammed Democrats on immigration and suggested that California is enticing migrants with free benefits, Mr. Newsom vetoed bills that would give unemployment benefits, mortgage assistance and campus jobs to undocumented workers.
Amid conservative claims that the government was “coming for your gas stove,” Mr. Newsom vetoed California’s version of that proposal. And he sidelined an effort to deter speeding with special sensors that would have alerted drivers when they exceeded the speed limit by more than 10 miles per hour.
As pro-Israel Republicans charged that California failed to quell campus protests over the war in Gaza, Mr. Newsom signed a bill requiring public universities to update campus codes of conduct and train students to conduct civil demonstrations.
“We are seeing some patterns this year,” said David McCuan, a political scientist at Sonoma State University. “And one is that Newsom has been trying to eliminate issues that could help Trump paint Kamala Harris in this election as Angela Davis 2.0,” he said, referring to the noted leftist activist.
Governor Dad
Mr. Newsom, who was young and single when he first ran for office in San Francisco, is now the 56-year-old married father of four school-age children. When he took office as governor in 2019, he unveiled a sweeping family agenda, with statewide transitional kindergarten and more robust paid family leave.
Mr. Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has spoken publicly about their children being cyberbullied, and several of the bills he signed this year addressed concerns about children and technology. Among them: laws restricting cellphones in schools and prohibiting tech companies from providing minors with “addictive” social media feeds.
Mr. Newsom also signed legislation to ban certain additives from food served at California schools by the end of 2027. The law would block popular items such as Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Froot Loops from being sold on school grounds during school hours, barring any changes in how they are processed.
With just over two years left in his term-limited tenure, Mr. Newsom has also been cognizant of his own legacy as an elected official. The billions of dollars he has continued to pump into programs to alleviate homelessness, for example, have lately been accompanied by demands that local officials do more to clear sprawling encampments and add local housing.
Part of that is impatience, his aides say. Part of that, too, is that it is unclear how long he will be able to have a direct impact on public policy. Once considered a top Democratic contender for the White House, Mr. Newsom has, at least for now, been shut out of the presidential sweepstakes.
“I am not looking to the next two years to be timid,” Mr. Newsom said in a recent interview after signing nearly three dozen bills on housing. “I feel like we still have a lot in the tank.”
The post Newsom Tacks to the Middle With California in the Spotlight appeared first on New York Times.
