Gavin Newsom became governor of California a year ago. Now he weighs in on the 2020 presidential election and juggling his family and being governor. USA TODAY
SACRAMENTO Gavin Newsom, the 40th governor of the state of California, emerges from the door to his private office with a sigh.
Sorry Im late," says Newsom, 52. "I was watching the impeachment hearings."
For Newsom,President Donald Trump is often unavoidable these days. He and the president, who isthe focus of the hearings, continue to be at loggerheads. In fact,Newsom's position as leader of the so-dubbed California Resistance helped him get elected on Nov. 7, 2018.
But some critics contend the governor's first year in officehas been diluted by this feud, resulting ina lack of progress on huge issues a mushrooming homeless population, astronomical housing prices, a dangerous electrical grid that have led pundits to write eulogies forthe age-old California dream.
Newsom is resolute. The dream will live on in spite of Trump.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 52, met recently with USA TODAY to discuss his first year in office, and how he has plans to tackle some of the state's most pressing problems, from homelessness to a broken electricity grid.(Photo: Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY)
One of the biggest stories that hasnt gotten full media attention is the assault by the president on the American people who happen to be residents of the largest state of our union, Newsom says in an exclusive year-end interview with USA TODAY. But California is thriving despite him.
So far, polls say most Californians like the job Newsom has donesince being sworn in Jan. 7, with 44% approving and 32% disapproving, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.
But while Newsom campaigned last fall on the enduring attraction of the mythic and potent California dream egalitarianism, upward mobility, natural beauty that postcard image has taken a hit.
Homelessness is soaring; 25% of the nations 600,000 homeless live in California. In San Francisco alone, apps have sprouted up to track human waste on sidewalks, people with mental illnesses have attacked other residents, and some companies, most recently Oracle, have canceled downtown convention plans.
Housing costs are driving away the middle class; the median home pricein California is $550,000, twice the national average, according to Zillow. More than28,190 people departedCalifornia in the second quarter of 2019, almost double 2017's rate, according to a regular Migration Report from real estate brokerage Redfin.
And Californias already prevalent wildfires now have an added menace; this years days-long Pacific Gas & Electric power grid shutdowns wreaked havoc particularly on seniors and the poor. Along with fires, they cost the states economy $11.5 billion, according to Bank of the West chief economist Scott Anderson.
To Newsom's constituents, taking on Trump is one task. Governing the state is another altogether.
He ran as a leader of the Trump resistance, and hes been all-in there and gets full marks, says Thad Kousser, chair of the University of California, San Diego, political science department and author of The Power of American Governors." So the next step will be to really get a coherent policy agenda set and implemented.
Leading that resistance has been time consuming. And Trump is fighting back, in ways that affect the state's policies.
Over the past year, Trump has threatenedto withhold federal aid for wildfire recovery on grounds that the state isnt managing its forests, has suggested federal oversight is needed to fix the state's homelessness epidemic, and has vowed to revoke the state's authority to set strict auto emissions standards.
Most recently, Trump has ordered that federal lands in California be open to fracking-style oil drilling, just as Newsom halted all fracking permits so that their ecological impact could be studied first.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Newsoms overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature passed a bill requiring Trump to turn over his tax records if he wanted to be on the ballot in 2020. That chess move was overturned by the California Supreme Court, but the jab landed.
California is a disgrace to our country, Trump told a Cincinnati crowd days after the bill was passed in July.
President Donald Trump talks with California's then-Gov. Elect Gavin Newsom during a visit to a neighborhood destroyed by the wildfires in Paradise, California on Nov. 17, 2018. The two have had an ongoing feud over issues such as forest management, homelessness and immigration, a duel that at times seems personal.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)
Some state lawmakers are concerned about Newsom's slow pace of progress on the traditional parts of his job.
Newsom has a Democratic majority in the Legislature, and what has he done with it? says Assemblyman Devon Mathis, a Republican from the Central Valley agricultural town of Visalia.
Conditions have gotten worse, and gorgeous cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles are cesspools, he says. And many of us are trying to take care of our families, praying to God we dont have a mishap and end up in the poverty line. Youre the governor; you have the ability to do something, not just talk.
Newsom says he is well aware of the criticism. And he asks for time.
We expect to be held accountable. We expect people to demand more. They want to see evidence of change, he says. All I can say is, we got here 11 damn months ago, and in the next few years if they dont see change, they can make a change at the ballot box. And they should if we dont produce real results.
Although Newsom doesnt offer a specific timeline, he says this coming year should bring progress as a result ofsteps taken over the past year.
These include releasing $650 million to municipalities to address homelessness, fining cities that push back against affordable housing initiatives, and signing 22 wildfire-related bills while increasing oversight over bankrupt utility PG&E, whose aging and faulty lines have sparked some of the deadly fires.
Newsom also points out that in his first yearhe has signed numerous laws that are in keeping with Californias progressive political track record. These include a ban on facial-recognition software in police body cameras, granting sexual assault victims more time to sue and expanding gun seizure rules.
Housing, Newsomadmits, is perhaps his greatest challenge, since it affectsboth the poorand the middle class, the engine of the state's massive economy, which totaled $3 trillion in 2018.
During his inauguration speech, Newsom promised a Marshall Plan for affordable housing, referencing U.S. aid to post-World War II Europe.He vowed to build 3.5 million new housing units by 2025. But in the first half of 2019, California cities approved 11% fewer residential building permits than the same period in 2018, according to a July report from the California Department of Finance.
This recent Santa Barbara fire was determined to be caused by Pacific Gas & Electric power lines coming into contact and sparking during high winds. California's fire season is beginning to extend year round as a result of climate change as well as housing developments that are in area indefensible by firefighters. Gov. Gavin Newsom is appropriating millions from the current budget to reassess the state's approach to mitigating such disasters.(Photo: Mike Eliason, AP)
He now calls the 3.5 million unit figure a stretch goal. Still, Newsom says the coming years should see growth in new affordable housing.
The housing issue, which is so key to that California dream, we have to hit that one head-on, Newsom says.
So we have $4.5 billion from the private sector, including $2.5 billion from Tim Cook at Apple,"in the form of land for affordable housing, first-time homebuyer assistance and more, he says."We put in $1.75 billion in state money. Were suing cities. We also putting up money to help cities plan for housing. Were looking at land-use policies. I hope in the next year or so well see movement, but theres no silver bullet. Nothing happens overnight.
As mayor of the Southern California surf-hub of Huntington Beach, Erik Peterson isnt so sure about Newsoms housing strategy.
Im not a fan, says Peterson, whose city Newsom sued early in his tenure as governor for failing to permit enough new housing.
Under him, were getting a more authoritarian Sacramento, says Peterson. The state says, 'Everyone will do what we say; you need to rezone your suburban neighborhoods to be urban centers.' Well, we get pushback on that from our residents.
Instead, Peterson says, Newsom should worry more about infrastructure and education, which are falling apart, and lets make California business-friendly again. If you have jobs, people can afford the houses.
In the northern California town of Chico, Mayor Randall Stone, an affordable housing developer, applauds Newsom for being the first governor in recent memory to put money and emphasis on housing.
Stone said he pulled Newsom aside when the governor visited earlier in the year to check on the recovery of nearby Paradise, which was decimated by fire in 2018. Stone told him: The reason theres no building of affordable housing is were disincentivized.
To blame, Stone says, are property and sales tax rates "that only go up 2% a year" and do not keep pace with employee salaries and other municipal costs. That often results in city halls being more likely to approve commercial building projects, like shopping malls and auto dealerships, because they bring in more tax revenue.
A homeless man sleeps in front of recycling bins and garbage on a street corner in San Francisco. California Gov. Gavin Newsom served as mayor of San Francisco, and tried to implement measures to help the homeless, even though their population has only grown since he left that office. Currently about 25% of the nation's 600,000 homeless call California home, a represent a pressing problem for the new governor.(Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP)
"But I'm not sure he can snap his fingers and fix that," Stone says. "Theyre longstanding systemic issues.
Newsom cautions that if a Not In My Backyard attitude persists at a municipal level,state-initiated housing assistance is moot.
All this NIMBY-ism, society becomes how we behave, he says. This cant be, 'I got mine; why dont you focus that over there? Weve got to own it. We have to transfer that energy of angst toward a real follow-through. And Im just getting started.
Some wonder where Newsom wants to end up. An entrepreneurial stint running his PlumpJack Winery company aside, Newsom has been in politics since becoming a San Francisco city supervisor at 29. He became mayor at age 36, and lieutenant governor at 42.
Many California political observers consider Newsoms presidential ambition to be one of the states worst kept secrets.
Both the bust of John F. Kennedy that sits on his desk as well asthe photo of his smiling late father William Newsom, a state appeals court judge,with former U.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy, seem to draw an invisible line between the photogenic governor and Camelot. But Newsom consistently shoots down the speculation that he is preparing for a White House run later this decade.
Honestly, no interest, he says.
Indeed, with its 40 million residents one in eight U.S. citizens calls California home Newsom presides over nothing short of a nation-state.
Laguna Beach, California, in the southern part of the state has beaches and weather that have come to epitomize California's mythic charm. But the state is facing epic problems in the form of growing homelessness, soaring housing costs and raging fires, all of which Gov. Gavin Newsom has been tasked to fix.(Photo: TraceRouda / Getty Images)
Despite Trump administration efforts, California still sets its own climate change goals, brokers its own deals with some of the worlds leading automakers on tailpipe emissions, and puts stakes in the ground when it comes to immigration policies such as its recent ban on privately run immigration detention centers.
Our role is potent and powerful, substantively so at this moment, says Newsom.
But while insisting that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is not on his radar, Newsom said he feels confident about Democratic chances to take the White House in 2020.
Weve offered a lot of different flavors from progressive to conservative, and well be well-positioned to unite around somebody at a time when we need to do so to take out one of the worst presidents in American history, he says.
Newsom was supportive of longtime friend and sometime political rival, Sen. Kamala Harris, including planning an Iowa trip to tout her candidacy before it was scratched when Harris endedher campaign on Dec. 3.
Of her withdrawal, he says simply: She had the burden of high expectations that she set herself, after outperforming many people who have had far more years on the national stage.
Whether it was watching Harris soar then nosedive, or simply tacitly acknowledging success in his first term as governor is key to any presidential run, he says California has all his attention.
This is the office of the governor of California, the fifth-largest economy in the world, he says, looking around the room. Its Earl Warrens office. Ronald Reagans office. Pat Brown, not just Jerry Brown.Its the best job in the world.
Over the past 11 months, Newsom has kept up a busy travel schedule within the state, often away from Sacramento at least one or two days a week. He has visited those displaced by fires up north, comforted shooting victims down south, and talked about water scarcity with farmers in the Central Valley.
What little free time he has back in the capital he dedicates to his wife, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four kids, all under age 10. To unwind, the governor says he likes to take his kids to the local fish hatchery and, his favorite, the recycling plant.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office from state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom and children look on during his inauguration Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Sacramento, California. Newsom has been out of Sacramento touring the state an average of a day or two a week since taking office, which often leaves him little time for his family.(Photo: Eric Risberg, AP Images)
Im not sure what it is about seeing tens of thousands of things bouncing around, but you get into that space and relax and zone out, Newsom says, laughing.
But those who know him best suggest the governor relishes negotiating Californias many vexing issues.
Gavins the happiest in the eye of the storm, and thats where hes been all year long, says Nathan Ballard, founder of The Press Shop media relations firm and Newsoms former mayoral press secretary. He recalls the heat Newsom happily took for allowing same-sex couples to marry in 2004, a stand that anticipated a national movement.
The longtime friend and informal advisor says that while its not in Gavin'snature to relax, Ballardand a small group did manage to take Newsom away from Sacramento in October, hauling him off to a rustic Marin County restaurant to celebrate the governors birthday.
That was fun, but he knows that now its time for him not just to survive a crisis, but to make this state a better place to live, says Ballard. And the proof will be on the streets. Simple as that.
Newsom, a self-confessed policy wonk, says he plans to get results over the coming years by learning everything he can about as many thorny California issues as possible.
"Governing is all about nuance, the details," he says. "Simple program passing isn't problem solving. When everyone else is running off to the next thing, I have to dig into it all to be sure we can implement changes effectively. I'm accountable."
That approach has critics like Mathis, theVisalia Assemblymember, shaking his head.
Newsom seems like hes trying to solve every problem in the state by himself, says Mathis, whose fellow state Republican party officials recently endorsed long-shotefforts to get Newsom recalled as governor. He needs to step up and start to delegate authority out and do so by stepping across the aisle.
For Anthony Rendon, who has been Californias State Assembly speaker since 2016, Newsom stands apart from his predecessor Brown, who was uniquely not interested in many issues, precisely because he cares about more.
Newsom matter-of-factly sayshe is not capable of not trying to solve a problem. So if todays critique is were swinging at a lot of pitches, absolutely that is fair criticism.
But, he adds, do I tell a senior citizen, 'Sorry, I cant help with your prescription because my team says I just need to focus on a couple of things'? Do you tell kids, 'Preschool cant be a priority because my communications staff think I should stay on wildfires'? Do you tell wildfire folks, 'Listen, we did some polling, and it looks like this year its got to be housing and homelessness'?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, pictured here in his office in Sacramento, has been at the helm of state for 11 months. He says he understands critics who say he is trying to tackle too many issues and hasn't gotten enough done to date. But he counters that as governor he is obliged to listen to the issues of all constituents, and vows that change on key issues will come during the rest of his first four-year term.(Photo: Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY)
Newsoms eyebrows arch. My point is, he says, when you look at those trade-offs as governor, you just know it all has to somehow be on the agenda.
One thing is certain. With a 2020 to-do list as high-profile as Newsoms start building new affordablehousing, shelter the homeless across the state, fix a broken gas and electricity utility, engage the Republican president in battle it will be easy for voters here to keep score.
But what would he say to someone who has given up on California's golden dream and isnt willing to wait for Newsom to polish it?
I would tell those folks I have a sensitivity to that. Theyre not wrong: The median price of a home is comically high in California, he says, veering off into details on his team's deep dives on housing solutions with city officials in Vancouver and Singapore.
But then Newsom resets.
Im empathetic and sympathetic, and its disturbing to me, he says. But that said, I feel for them. Youre missing the opportunities this state can provide. We had a historic decade in venture capital investment, a historic decade of job creation. There is no Trump economy without Californias success. This is Florence in its golden age.
"Sure, there are costs associated with that success, yes. But if we can balance those out, boy, the skys the limit."
Follow USA TODAY national correspondent Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava
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A year in, Gavin Newsom is still fighting Trump. Is he doing enough to govern California? - USA TODAY
