California’s governor is spending more time and money on two ballot measures and a possible presidential run than his own reelection campaign.
Speaking to reporters in Sacramento in early October, a rare session with the Capitol press corps this year, Newsom said that his experience with the recall election, when state and national GOP figures, had uniquely equipped him to push back on what he characterized as Republicans’ divisive politics.
Brown said that running from California was a challenge, because candidates need to be relevant to the East Coast, where so many voters are located. One of his mistakes, he said, was not taking more of a national orientation during his first governorship and not selling his story harder to the media outside California.
“You need to have relationships with the movers and shakers in those states,” Walsh said. “That’s the introduction to the dance. It’s the ticket.” For many others, it seems like an obvious ploy to appeal to the Democratic activists who make up the party base in a presidential primary. Notably, Texas and Florida — Newsom’s most frequent targets — not only have two of the most prominent Republican governors in the country, with rumored presidential ambitions of their own, they are also two of the most delegate-rich states for an aspiring Democratic nominee, after California and New York., a Democratic political consultant based in Houston.
“No one pays attention to Texas. No one helps Texas. We are on our own,” she said. “If you want to come in and bitch-slap some of our Republican guys, knock your socks off.”