Govern For California

As Gavin Newsom gets set to enact the eighth and final budget of his tenure as governor, I am beginning a review of all of his spending since he took office in January, 2019. His first seven budgets spent $3.168 trillion, including federal funds. His final budget proposes to spend $539.1 billion, for a total of $3.707 trillion of spending over Newsom’s eight years.

I first tried to recruit Matt Mahan into politics more than a decade ago. He’s an exceptional man with a rare temperament for governing — mild-mannered, pragmatic, and too honorable to make promises he can’t keep. So when he announced his run for governor earlier this year, I jumped at the chance to help. But I faced an immediate problem: how do you introduce an unknown candidate to a state as large and loud as California?

In their bids for governor, Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, and Steve Hilton attributed California’s systemic issues to Donald Trump, corporations, and the Democratic party, respectively. That rhetoric might appeal to some voters but not to the facts. Becerra’s claims are undermined by the fact that California has significantly lagged behind other states during the Trump (and, for that matter, Biden) presidencies.