Issues & Insights "Ralph Waldo Emerson said “when you strike at a king, you must kill him.” Gov. Gavin Newsom is no king, and last month’s recall campaign was not intended to
harm him physically. But it’s foolish to believe he won’t respond as a monarch who narrowly missed losing his crown would.. . . "Newsom, who’s been working his way up California politics since the 1990s, had never appeared to be the vindictive sort, such as, say, a Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. But then the recall race tightened up. The now-famous “damn” interview in August with editorial boards from McClatchy’s California newspapers made it obvious that the pressure was getting to him. He lashed out at the journalists who were interviewing him, “everybody outside this state,” and “our homegrown team.” He also made it clear that he feels threatened by Texas, because he made a comparison between the states that he couldn’t back up.
At that point, it became clear that a cornered Newsom was capable of punishing his political enemies.
"Of course, the walls that were closing in are now gone. So the “left-leaning advocacy organizations” that “are ready with a list of ideas” – such as a new focus on taxpayer-provided health care and climate – for Newsom to turn into policy will have an extra-attentive governor at the table.
“ 'When you face a recall … it sharpens your focus about time,” Newsom said. “Things that you may have looked at on the horizon and said, ‘You know over the next two, three years, we want to get this done,’ you start looking very differently and say, ‘What’s possible in the next two to three months?’”
"British journalist Piers Morgan, who has lived and worked in California, and still has a home in Los Angeles, noted this month that, “empowered by his recent recall election win, Newsom fired off a raft of laws that included making it illegal to use gas-powered ‘off-road engine engines’ including leaf-blowers, lawnmowers, and golf carts, ordered schools to teach all students ‘ethnic studies’, and large toy stores to have gender-neutral sections.' ” . . .
