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      Laphonza Butler to fill Dianne Feinstein’s vacant Senate seat, Newsom office says

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      California governor Gavin Newsom will name Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, to fill the vacant US Senate seat previously held by Dianne Feinstein, a spokesperson in his office has said.In choosing Butler, Newsom fulfils his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat should become open. However, he had been facing pressure by some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who is already running for the seat.Butler will be the only Black woman serving in the US Senate, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress and the longest-serving woman in the Senate, died at age 90 on Thursday after a series of illnesses.Butler leads Emily’s List, a political organization that supports Democratic female candidates who favor abortion rights. She also is a former labor leader with SEIU 2015, a powerful force in California politics.Butler currently lives in Maryland, according to her Emily’s List biography.She did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A spokesperson in Newsom’s office who declined to be named confirmed to the Associated Press that Newsom had chosen Butler.Democrats control the Senate 51-49, though Feinstein’s seat is vacant. A quick appointment by Newsom will give the Democratic caucus more wriggle room on close votes, including nominations that Republicans uniformly oppose. She could be sworn in as early as Tuesday evening when the Senate returns to session.Feinstein said in February she was would not seek reelection in 2024.Lee is one of several prominent Democrats competing for the seat, including Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Newsom said he did not want to appoint any of the candidates because it would give them an unfair advantage in the race.His spokesperson, Anthony York, said the governor did not ask Butler to commit to staying out of the race. The deadline for candidates to file for the office is 8 December.Butler has never held elected office but has a long track record in California politics. She served as a senior adviser to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign while working at a political firm filled with strategists who have worked for Newsom and many other prominent state Democrats. She also briefly worked in the private sector for Airbnb.She called Feinstein “a legendary figure for women in politics and around the country”, in a statement posted after Feinstein’s death.Emily’s List, the group Butler leads, focuses on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights. With the US supreme court’s 2022 decision to overturn women’s constitutional right to abortion, the issue has become a galvanizing one for many Democrats.The seat is expected to stay in Democratic hands in the 2024 election. Democrats in the liberal-leaning state have not lost a statewide election since 2006, and the party holds a nearly two-to-one voter registration advantage over Republicans. More

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      Gavin Newsom says Ron DeSantis is ‘fundamentally authoritarian’

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      Ron DeSantis is “fundamentally authoritarian”, but Donald Trump’s quest for “vengeance” poses an even greater threat to democracy, California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom said on Sunday.Newsom took aim at the leading two candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination during a hard-hitting and wide-ranging interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, the final episode with its long-time host Chuck Todd.“I worry about democracy,” he said. “I worry about the fetishness for autocracy that we’re seeing not just from Trump, but around the world, and notably across this country.“I’ve made the point about DeSantis that I think he’s functionally authoritarian. I’m worried more, in many respects, about Trumpism, which transcends well beyond his term and time in tenure.”Newsom added: “The vengeance in Donald Trump’s heart right now is more of a threat.”The governor, seen as a rising star in the Democratic party and a likely future presidential candidate, was referring to the former president’s often-voiced promises to gain “revenge” – if he wins back the White House – over political rivals he blames for the multiple criminal indictments against him.If Trump does win the 2024 general election, Newsom said, he would work with his administration for the sake of California residents, as he said he did during the Covid-19 pandemic.“At the end of the day, these are the cards that are dealt. And I want to do the best for the people that I represent, 40 million Americans that happen to live in California,” he told Todd, who is standing down as host of Meet the Press after almost a decade.“Many support him. I’m not going to oppose someone just to oppose them – I don’t come into a relationship with closed fists, but an open hand. I call balls and strikes, and few people were more aggressive at calling balls and strikes against Donald Trump. I called California the most un-Trump state in America, and I hold to that.”Newsom saved his harshest criticism, however, for DeSantis, the rightwing Republican governor of Florida, with whom he has frequently clashed. He disagreed with DeSantis’s strategy of lifting lockdowns and banning mask mandates, and attacked the Florida leader’s “partisanship” – most recently on display when he snubbed Joe Biden’s visit to the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia.“I don’t like the partisanship. And I thought it was demonstrably displayed by what I thought was a very weak exercise by governor DeSantis,” Newsom said regarding the Floridian’s snub of the president.Newsom and DeSantis have agreed to a televised debate on Fox TV this fall. An impasse over logistics might soon clear, Newsom said.The California governor said he was fine with the rightwing Fox personality Sean Hannity as moderator, making it effectively a “two-on-one” debate in Newsom’s words. But Newsom said he was still not happy with the proposed venue and sizable public audience.“They wanted thousands of people and [to] make it a performance. I wasn’t interested in that. We were pretty clear on that. [But] we’re getting closer,” he said.Other subjects covered during the interview included who might run as the Democratic party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election if Biden – who will be 81 on polling day – drops out.Newsom said he doesn’t expect that to happen, but if it does, the candidate will not be him.“Won’t happen,” he replied when Todd asked him if he would ever run against the vice-president, Kamala Harris, a former California senator with whom he said he has “a very good relationship”.“It’s the Biden-Harris administration. Maybe I’m a little old-fashioned about presidents and vice-presidents. We need to move past this notion that he’s not going to run. President Biden is going to run, and [I’m] looking forward to getting him re-elected,” Newsom said.Newsom was also questioned on the future of the veteran California senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, whose recent health issues have led to long absences from the chamber and prompted calls for her to stand down.He refused to be drawn on whether he would appoint a replacement, as he did when elevating Alex Padilla, California’s secretary of state, to the senate when Harris became Biden’s running mate in 2020.“Her staff is still extraordinarily active and we wish her only the best,” he said, insisting that Feinstein could still represent the state until next year.“Her term expires – she’s not running for re-election. So this time next year we’ll be in a very different place. I don’t want to make another appointment, and I don’t think the people of California want me to make another appointment.“That said, [if] we have to do it, we’ll do it.” More

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      In reversal, California school district adopts curriculum on LGBTQ+ figures

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      A school district in southern California has decided to adopt the state’s new social studies book and curriculum after previously rejecting it for its reference of LGBTQ+ figures in history.The Temecula Valley unified school district voted to accept the curriculum following a lengthy meeting on Friday where parents, teachers and community members spoke for and against it. The decision has been welcomed by Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, for thwarting an attempt to “whitewash history” and removed the threat of sanctions against the school district for not adopting the curriculum.The board voted to reject the material in May and even in its acceptance of the curriculum on Friday it said it would strike out anything mentioning Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist and politician who was assassinated along with San Francisco mayor George Moscon in 1978. Milk, who has become a totemic figure in the push for LGBTQ+ equality in the US, is thought to have been the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California.Milk does not feature in the new social studies textbook, a school board member told CNN, but is listed in supplemental material along with a range of other historical figures’ biographies.“Fortunately, now students will receive the basic materials needed to learn,” said Newsom. “But this vote lays bare the true motives of those who opposed this curriculum. This has never been about parents’ rights. It’s not even about Harvey Milk – who appears nowhere in the textbook students receive. This is about extremists’ desire to control information and censor the materials used to teach our children.”California’s department of education will investigate the school district over the episode, which pitted some board members against a 2011 state law that requires students to get instruction about “the role and contributions” of LGBT people, as well as those of different ethnicities, cultures and disabilities.The president of the school board, Joseph Komrosky, called Milk a “pedophile” during a May meeting that resulted in the textbook being barred. Komrosky has said he will resist any attempt to implement the new textbook and accused Newsom of overstepping his authority.“I’ve already instructed the superintendent, if books come from shipping and receiving, to say ‘no,’ and we’ll ship them right back,” Komrosky said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe furor in California follows a wave of book bans in schools and libraries across the US, often driven by conservative activists who have opposed mentions of LGBTQ+ people, or accurate portrayals of America’s history of slavery. Meanwhile, least 492 bills attacking LGBTQ+ rights have been introduced in state legislatures, according to the ACLU. More

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      Florida confirms it was behind flights that left asylum seekers in California

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      Florida confirmed on Tuesday that it was behind two private jet flights that brought three dozen people seeking asylum from the US southern border to California amid accusations that the individuals were coerced to travel under false pretenses.The state’s division of emergency management said in a statement that the passengers all went willingly, and refuted allegations from California officials such as the governor, Gavin Newsom, who had threatened Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, with kidnapping charges.Two planes arrived in Sacramento on 2 and 5 June, each carrying people seeking asylum, mostly from Colombia and Venezuela. The individuals had been picked up in El Paso, Texas, taken to New Mexico and then put on charter flights to California’s capital of Sacramento, said Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general. Bonta, who said Florida would be guilty of “state-sanctioned kidnapping” if it was found to be behind the flights, is investigating whether any violations of criminal or civil law occurred.Alecia Collins, a spokesperson for the Florida division of emergency management, said in a statement that “through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California”. She also shared a video compilation that appeared to show people signing consent forms and thanking officials for treating them well.The clips had no time stamps, and Collins declined to share additional details about when and where they were recorded.It was the DeSantis administration’s first acknowledgment that it coordinated the flights.This isn’t the first time the DeSantis administration has transported migrants from Texas to other states. Last fall, Florida flew 49 Venezuelans to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. This week a Texas sheriff filed acriminal case over the flights to Martha’s Vineyard – the sheriff has previously said the migrants were “lured under false pretenses” into traveling to the wealthy liberal town.Last month, DeSantis, who recently announced a presidential bid, signed into law a bill approving $12m for a program to relocate migrants, even if they never step foot in Florida.Bonta, who met with some of the migrants who arrived on Friday, said they told him they were approached by two women who spoke broken Spanish and promised them jobs in El Paso. The women traveled with them by land from El Paso to Deming, New Mexico, where two men then accompanied them on the flight to Sacramento. The same men were on the flight on Monday, Bonta said.He said the asylum seekers have court dates in New York, Utah and Colorado and carried a document that “purports to be a consent and release form” that is designed to shield Florida from liability.“Of course, what’s important is what is actually said and represented and told to the individuals, and we’ve got good indications of what that was and the fact that it was false, misleading and deceptive,” Bonta said.Darrell Steinberg, Sacramento’s mayor, said faith-based groups are working together to help the newcomers, who are staying at two undisclosed locations in the city and have been given food, clothing and cellphones to contact their families.Gabby Trejo, the executive director of Sacramento ACT, a collaboration of religious congregations in the Sacramento area, said all of the arrivals had already been given pending court dates by US immigration officials before they were approached in Texas by people promising jobs. Trejo said that they had been “lied to and deceived”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNewsom’s office, meanwhile, doubled down on its criticism of DeSantis.“This is exploitative propaganda being peddled by a politician who has shown there are no depths he won’t sink to in his desperate effort to score a political point,” said Anthony York, a spokesperson for Newsom.Newsom indicated in a tweet on Monday that California may consider kidnapping charges against DeSantis. Such charges would likely be extremely difficult to prove, particularly given that the migrants signed waivers.DeSantis’s latest apparent move to send migrants to California’s capital city appears to be a direct shot at Newsom. Though Newsom has not announced any plans to run for president in 2024, he and DeSantis have frequently sparred on immigration policy, abortion access, LGBTQ+ and civil rights, and a host of other cultural issues.It’s not yet clear if the new arrivals in Sacramento plan to stay in California or will eventually seek to go elsewhere, advocates said. Four who arrived on the first flight on Friday have already been picked up by friends or family members, but the rest remain in the care of local advocacy groups.The faith-based coalition is also connecting the migrants with medical and legal services, said Shireen Miles, a longtime Sacramento ACT volunteer. She said several people have court hearings as soon as next week in places such as Chicago, New York and Denver, which immigration attorneys are working to reschedule. More

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      Gavin Newsom presidential run is ‘no-brainer’, Arnold Schwarzenegger says

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      A presidential run by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is a “no-brainer”, according to one of the Democrat’s predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film star and “governator” who ran the golden state for eight years from 2003.“I think it’s a no-brainer,” Schwarzenegger told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Tuesday. “Every governor from a big state wants to take that shot.”Schwarzenegger also discussed his exercise regime and described how, at 75, he plans “to live forever”.Newsom, 55, is one of few names proposed as a credible alternative to Joe Biden, the 80-year-old Democrat in the White House – though such suggestions have quietened since Biden announced his re-election campaign.Shortly after election day next year, Biden will turn 82. Newsom can in all likelihood wait until 2028 to take his own tilt at the presidency, not least as his term in state office will end in 2027.First elected in 2018, Newsom steered California through the Covid pandemic but had to fight off a recall before winning re-election.Schwarzenegger, 75, said: “What do I think about his performance? When you become part of the club, you don’t criticise governors – because you know how tough the job is. It’s impossible to please everybody.“Before I ran for governor, I had an 80% approval rating. As soon as I announced, I had a 43% approval rating. Immediately, half of the people said, ‘Fuck him! I’m not going to see his movies anymore.’“I would run things differently [than Newsom], but I’m a Republican, so of course I would. I don’t criticise him for not doing it my way.”Schwarzenegger earned the “governator” nickname, based on his famous roles in the Terminator films, when he won election as governor in 2003. He left office in 2011, unable to run for president because he was born in Austria.Asked for his view of Ron DeSantis of Florida, the leading Republican challenger to Donald Trump for the GOP nomination next year, Schwarzenegger was mildly critical.“I was against some of the stuff he did with Covid,” Schwarzenegger told the Reporter, of the governor who moved against mask and vaccine mandates and other public health measures.“But who am I to judge? That’s for the people of Florida. My style is different. His is too conservative for me. That doesn’t mean I think he’s terrible. He’s just not my style.”In a passage of possible interest to Biden, the Reporter asked Schwarzenegger about his own battle against the effects of age.“I never had cosmetic surgery,” he said. “I never tried any gimmicks. Years ago, I [went to] UCLA, where they have world-renowned experts on ageing. I asked if anything has been created, or that is about to be available, that reverses ageing.“He says, ‘Absolutely nothing, end of story.’ The only thing you can do is the old-fashioned stuff. I could wipe out earlier because I smoke cigars, but then it gets counterbalanced by me eating well and then exercising.“… I still work out every day, I ride my bike every day, and I make movies – show business is another part of my life. I add in my life, I never subtract.“I don’t need money. I get money because you have to have a certain value and the agents negotiate. But I have a great time doing it. I love everything that I do. There’s no retiring. I’m still on this side of the grass, so I’m happy. My plan is to live forever – and so far, so good!” More

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      Senate musical chairs: California prepares for political battle over Feinstein vacancy

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      Senate musical chairs: California prepares for political battle over Feinstein vacancyAn ‘avalanche’ of candidates, including Katie Porter, Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff, announce candidacy for California seat Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old who served as California senator for three decades, has yet to announce her retirement. But the contest to succeed her in two years is already shaping into a bitter battle.Progressive Katie Porter launches bid for Dianne Feinstein’s US Senate seatRead moreAfter months of shadow campaigning and whispered political leveraging, earlier this month, Katie Porter – the whiteboard-wielding progressive congresswoman – became the first to officially declare her candidacy. Barbara Lee, the old-school leftist with an ardent antiwar record, has reportedly told colleagues she is running. Adam Schiff, icon of the anti-Trump liberal resistance, has reportedly begun prepping for a run. Silicon valley congressman Ro Khanna is expected to jump in as well.In California’s open primary system, it’s possible, and likely, that two Democrats will face-off in the 2024 Senate race. Until then, voters may need to brace for what is sure to be a protracted, pricey two years of campaigning.And we’re likely to see an “avalanche” of candidates to come, said Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University.Porter’s early announcement drew criticism for coming not only before Feinstein had announced her retirement, but also amid a spate of severe storms in California. Following Porter’s announcement, Schiff pointedly used his campaign fundraising list to raise money for flood victims.But Porter’s declaration also earned praise, for publicly owning up to the political plots that many ambitious California lawmakers have so far been devising in the dark. Concerns about Feinstein’s cognition and fitness to serve have been circulating for years, and quite a few candidates have been eyeing her seat for just as long.“The sooner you can get out the door and start talking to donors and consolidate support, the stronger you’ll be,” Schiller said. Porter already had $8m in her campaign war chest after beating back a Republican challenger in her competitive Orange county district, south-east of Los Angeles and managed to raise more than a million in the first day after announcing her run for Feinstein’s seat. Schiff has nearly $21m.Meanwhile Lee, a beloved Bay Area politician who has served in congress since 1998, hasn’t had to do a lot of fundraising so far. She’s got just over $50,000 on reserve. In a state that is dominated by the Democratic party, the ultimate victor could boil down to who has the most funding. And how each candidate manages to differentiate themselves from fellow lawmakers who ultimately agree on most major policy decisions.“They’re not going to run on very slight policy differences,” Schiller said.“They’re going to run on who will be the strongest, most energetic – and they will use that word, energetic – advocate for the state of California.”Porter, who is a protege of senator Elizabeth Warren (and has already been endorsed by the senator) has built a reputation as a sharp interrogator at congressional hearings, and staunch defender of women’s rights. Her victories in purple Orange county will also have trained her to persevere in politically chequered California.Meanwhile, Schiff became a household name after serving as lead impeachment manager pursuing Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. While Schiff has earned the ire of criminal justice and immigrant rights advocates in California for his “tough on crime” record as a California legislator prior to being elected to Congress, he will likely be received as a more centrist and moderate alternative to the more leftist contenders.Lee, the only member of both chambers of Congress to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force after 9/11, can rely on her unwavering progressive record. “I can personally attest to her courageous, bold, principled stances,” said Aimee Allison, president and founder of She the People, an organisation aimed at boosting the political power of women of colour.In the Bay Area, which has historically been the state’s political powerhouse and produced a spate of governors and senators including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Feinstein, governor Gavin Newsom and vice-president Kamala Harris, Lee has strong support and has earned her bonafides working with the Black Panthers, then as a lawmaker pushing to limit defense spending, enacting gun control measures, climate legislation and protections for women’s rights.When Newsom was considering whom to appoint to the Senate seat vacated by Harris, Lee was a top contender. Now Allison and many other Californians are hoping to see a Black woman ascend to the Senate – at a time when there are none in the chamber. “Black women are the drivers of so many Democratic wins throughout the country at every level,” Allison said. That they aren’t represented at all in the Senate “is a travesty”, she said.It’s still unclear whether Khanna will run against Lee if she declares – having hinted that he might make way for his fellow Bay Area progressive if she runs. Khanna, who has positioned himself to run for either Senate or the presidency in recent years with political tours around the US, has branded himself as someone who can bridge populism and the big tech that dominates his Silicon Valley district.Other potential contenders will make themselves known soon. Markedly missing from the field so far is a Latino candidate, in a state where 40% of residents are Latinx. Alex Padilla, the state’s junior senator, is the first Latino senator elected from California.Some politicos think Newsom himself may declare a run – even as others speculate that he is positioning himself for a presidential run.Feinstein still hasn’t said she’ll retire. But since Porter announced, “we’re all focused on the Senate race of 2024 – you can’t put that back in the box”, Allison said. “So the people who are serious about running for Senate – they’ve got to get started.”TopicsCaliforniaUS politicsUS SenateGavin NewsomDianne FeinsteinfeaturesReuse this content More

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      A California measure would tax the rich to fund electric vehicles. Why is the governor against it?

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      A California measure would tax the rich to fund electric vehicles. Why is the governor against it?Proposition 30 would raise up to $5bn annually to help buy zero-emission cars, trucks and buses; Newsom calls it a ‘Trojan horse’ Two years ago, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.This year, he’s opposing a ballot measure to fund the transition to electric vehicles – siding with Republicans and against fellow Democrats, environmental groups, firefighters and labor unions.The governor’s counterintuitive position could be a political gambit. It may also doom the measure; support for it appears to have dropped starkly after Newsom cut an ad against it.California wants everyone to drive EVs. How will low-income people afford them?Read moreThe measure, Proposition 30, would hike taxes by 1.75% on those earning $2m or more annually, raising between $3bn and $5bn annually to subsidize households, businesses and schools; buy zero-emission cars, trucks and buses; fund infrastructure to charge electric vehicles; and bolster wildfire prevention efforts.Proponents of the measure, including the coalition of environmental and labor groups that developed it, say the tax would provide urgently needed funds to hasten the transition to zero-emission vehicles, and reduce the disproportionate burden of pollution on low-income, minority communities across the state. According to the American Lung Association, which has endorsed Prop 30, the US could save 110,000 lives and $1.2tn in public health costs by 2050 if it swaps gas-powered vehicles for zero-emissions cars.Newsom, and the proposition’s opponents, claim it is a corporate carve-out for Lyft, the ride-hailing company that has backed the measure and helped fund its campaign.“Prop 30 is being advertised as a climate initiative,” Newsom says in an advertisement against Prop 30. “But in reality, it was devised by a single corporation to funnel state income taxes to benefit their company. Put simply, Prop 30 is a Trojan horse that puts corporate welfare above the fiscal welfare of our entire state.”The message left some of the organizers and activists who helped write the measure stunned.“It’s just false,” said Denny Zane, the founder and policy director at Move LA, a public transit advocacy group that helped develop the proposition. Lyft joined the effort to promote the proposition after environmental groups and policymakers came up with the idea, he said, but the company did not “devise” the proposition.Overhauling the transportation infrastructureLyft has given more than $15m to support the measure and funded signature-gathering to get it on the November ballot. Though it wouldn’t benefit directly from the proposition, it and other rideshare companies face a 2030 regulatory deadline to transition the majority of their fleets to EVs. Prop 30 could help Lyft drivers, who are responsible for providing their own cars, purchase zero-emission vehicles.“It’s absurd to say we’re granting some sort of carve-out specifically for Lyft,” said Bill Magavern, the policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, a statewide organization focused on air pollution issues.Proponents of the funding measure point out that the $10bn that Newsom’s budget has already allocated to EV subsidies and infrastructure would help Lyft drivers in the same way. And funds from Prop 30 would ultimately be funneled to the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission and Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency, which would allocate the money to various programs.Newsom argues that California’s tax revenues are “famously volatile”, and the measure would make the state’s finances even more unstable. A wealth tax, the governor says, wouldn’t be the best way to fund the programs Prop 30 seeks to support. Moreover, he has noted that the state has already budgeted $10bn for electric vehicles specifically, and $54bn toward climate adaptation broadly.But environmental and transportation experts say even such massive investments won’t be enough to transition the state’s transportation infrastructure.Magavern and other environmental advocates instead see the governor’s stance on the proposition as a capitulation to wealthy donors. “You’ve got billionaires and their allies who don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes,” Magavern said.Among the biggest donors to the “No on 30” campaign are William Fisher, hedge fund manager and Gap Inc director, and billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, according to public records. Investment firm founder Mark Heising, who contributed the maximum allowable amount to Newsom’s 2022 re-election campaign, also contributed $1m to oppose Prop 30.Joining these donors, Newsom, and anti-tax Republican politicians is the California Teachers Association, which opposed the measure because it circumvents a 1998 mandate that a minimum of 40% of the state’s budget goes to public education.Opinion columnists and political experts have conjectured that Newsom’s siding with teachers and his traditional enemies – the Republicans – could help bolster the governor’s political future. Though Newsom has repeatedly denied he has any intention of running for president, his recent national-facing campaign ads have stirred up speculation to the contrary. Newsom’s position on Prop 30 could easily fit into a presidential pitch that he walks the line between California progressivism and nationally appealing moderation, those columnists and experts have argued, and that he doesn’t blindly side with his own party and sometimes works with Republicans and business interests. The governor’s campaign did not respond to detailed questions regarding the political implications of this opposition to the proposition. “Prop 30 is fiscally irresponsible and puts the profits of a single corporation ahead of the welfare of the entire state,” the governor said in a statement.Meeting the state’s zero-emission goalsCalifornia will have to make major investments if it wants to live up to its clean energy goals.As more electric vehicles hit the road, the state has set targets to build an additional 170,000 public charging stations over the next three years. And California would need to invest in fortifying its already shaky electrical grid system.“The governor did support record levels of investment in this year’s budget, which is great news, it’s what’s needed,” said Don Anair, an expert in zero-emission transportation technologies and infrastructure at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which supports Prop 30.But it’s unclear how much will be invested in electric and zero-emission vehicles in subsequent yearly budgets, including after Newsom leaves office, Anair said. “We need a long-term, large-scale source of revenue to meet the state’s goals.”The need for investment now is urgent, Anair added. Even if the state phases out gas-powered vehicles by 2035, the cars, buses and freight vehicles already on the road now, or bought over the next few years will remain on the road for decades unless California incentivizes and subsidizes the purchase of zero-emission options.One limitation of the proposition is that it doesn’t specify subsidies for e-bikes and other programs to steer commuters away from cars altogether. Even electric cars are far less efficient than walking, biking and public transportation – they are energy and resource-intensive to build, and encourage urban sprawl. The mining of cobalt, lithium and other rare elements required to build EVs has raised environmental and human rights concerns.In coming years, even more investments in public transit and urban infrastructure, as well as improvements in how EVs are made, will be required in order to truly address the climate crisis.The proposition “is not going to solve all our transportation problems”, Anair said. But for now, transportation remains the largest source of greenhouse emissions in California. “So zero-emission transportation is critically important,” Anair said. “Climate change is already having impacts and the sooner we can start reducing our emissions, the better.”TopicsCaliforniaGavin NewsomElectric, hybrid and low-emission carsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Will Gavin Newsom run for president – and could he win over the Democratic base?

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      Will Gavin Newsom run for president – and could he win over the Democratic base? The California governor insists he’s not running – but his recent moves suggest national aspirationsGavin Newsom has paid for billboard banners in Mississippi, Texas and several other Republican-run states in the lead up to the November midterms. The California governor’s campaign has aired TV advertisements in Florida, and he’s challenged the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, to a nationally televised debate.No, he’s not running for president. At least, not officially.Newsom easily trounced a recall effort last year and is expected to coast into re-election in November. With a healthy lead in statewide polls and a hefty $24m in his campaign fund, Newsom is using the opportunity to raise his national profile – and maybe bask a bit in the presidential buzz surrounding him.He has insisted that he has “subzero interest” in being president, and he reiterated the point during a talk last week in Austin, where he was billed to speak “on what the nation’s most populous state” could teach the other 49.“I cannot say it enough,” Newsom said. “I never trust politicians, so I get why you keep asking.”But denial is the tradition of pretty much every politician who has flirted with chief executive ambitions. Why else is he touting his visits to the White House (to “meet with national leaders” and pick up an education award) and speaking engagements in New York (to amplify his climate policies)?“Yeah, he’s definitely running for president,” said Dan Schnur, a politics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has advised Republican candidates. “The only question is whether he’s running in 2024 or 2028.”With Joe Biden suggesting that he will probably run for re-election, Newsom might have to wait his turn. In any case, “Newsom is setting a course for higher office, after his tenure as governor,” said Sonja Diaz, director of UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute. Nearly every California governor since the second world war has harbored presidential hopes, but Newsom could just as well be auditioning for the Senate seat that the 89-year-old Dianne Feinstein might retire from soon, or perhaps some other national position in Washington DC.It’s not just Newsom’s campaign that has raised chatter about his national aspirations. Opinion columnists, political consultants and activists have also closely watched his gubernatorial priorities and vetoes – and wondered about his motivations.California governor’s ad campaign offers help to women in anti-abortion statesRead moreDiverging at times from his own professed policy ideals, Newsom has attempted to walk the line between California progressivism and nationally appealing moderation. He pushed to keep open the state’s last nuclear plant, going against an agreement devised with environmental groups years ago. He successfully championed a controversial program to force unhoused people into mental health and substance abuse treatment, over the objections of civil rights leaders, disability activists and healthcare professionals. And last month, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed for supervised injection site pilot programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland – backtracking on his own support for such measures to prevent overdose deaths. “I have long supported the cutting edge of harm reduction strategies,” he said in a veto message, but he said the bill “could induce a world of unintended consequences”. Ultimately, he kicked the can down the road, directing the health department to research “best practices” for such programs.“A centrist Democrat who needs to win swing voters in the general election can’t sign legislation creating government-run drug sites,” Schnur said. Based on his personality, his business-minded background and his policy track record, Newsom isn’t likely to inspire the party base the way progressives like Bernie Sanders could. “So his opportunity lies in really presenting himself as a center-left alternative,” Schnur said.Newsom’s office declined to comment on this story but directed the Guardian to news releases and public comments explaining his reasoning for vetoing legislation. His re-election campaign also did not respond to the Guardian’s queries.Having risen to political prominence from the Bay Area, backed by some of San Francisco’s wealthiest families, Newsom will have to expand his circle of advisers, consultants and surrogates – to better understand and reach across the state and country, Diaz said.As a career politician who rose from San Francisco parking and traffic commissioner to mayor to lieutenant governor to governor, and as a multimillionaire businessman, with a chain of wineries, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and shops stretching across northern California, Newsom has benefitted throughout his career from his close ties with the Gettys, politically well-connected heirs to an oil fortune.And so far, Newsom has had to face few – if any – truly competitive political challenges. Currently, he has the backing of 52% of registered voters, compared with 25% who favor his challenger, Brian Dahle, a conservative state senator. Even during his recall election last year, when California voters showed signs of losing faith in Newsom amid a devastating surge in the Covid-19 pandemic and escalating economic woes, the governor was able to easily retain his seat – and defeat conservative and rightwing challengers who inspired even less faith in voters.In many ways, Newsom has made much more of an effort than many of his predecessors to elevate Latino, Black and Asian American leaders, and to engage with the state’s vast geography of cultures and experiences, Diaz noted. But in a national race, Newsom may have to do more to convince voters, especially voters of color and working-class voters, that he really sees and understands their challenges and the legacy of inequality that they have to contend with, she said. So far, even the governor’s well-intentioned policies amid the pandemic exacerbated racial and economic disparities.Although Newsom ultimately signed a farmworker labor bill to ease union voting, his initial hesitancy threatened to alienate California’s large unions, agricultural workers and their families, and other essential workers. In a rare moment of intervention, Biden has urged Newsom to sign the measure, which would ease farmworker union voting, as did the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, Newsom’s longtime Bay Area ally.The pressure came after Newsom’s office issued a statement last month suggesting that he would veto the measure, and the governor declined to personally meet with United Farm Workers representatives who organized a march from the San Joaquin Valley all the way to the capitol.“In the state with the largest population of farmworkers, the least we owe them is an easier path to make a free and fair choice to organize a union,” Biden said, just before Labor Day.The statement is in line with Biden’s broader support for unions. “But it’s not hard to imagine that the president wanted to remind the governor to wait his turn,” Shnur said.TopicsGavin NewsomUS politicsCaliforniafeaturesReuse this content More