Newsom’s State of the State looked like a presidential campaign

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference on May 10, 2024 in Sacramento, California.

The California State Constitution requires that “the Governor shall report to the State Legislature each calendar year upon the condition of the State and shall make recommendations as appropriate.”

Traditionally, this meant that the governor personally addressed a joint session of the legislature at the beginning of each year to present the agenda of the legislative process, including a new state budget.

For reasons known only to him, Gavin Newsom has rejected this tradition after maintaining it for the first two years of his term as governor. He delivered his third State of the State address in an empty Dodgers Stadium during the COVID-19 pandemic and his fourth in a state agency auditorium rather than the Capitol. Last year, he sent a letter to the legislature after a multi-day tour of the state.

On Tuesday, just days before the halfway point, Newsom again deviated from tradition and delivered a pre-recorded video, perhaps the most belated State of the State address in California history.

But was it really a State of the State address or the opening event of his campaign for the office of US President in 2028?

The first passages were an open verbal attack on the “toxic populism of the right” of Republicans in Congress and the Republican-leaning states, which he described as “forces of darkness.” He cited a series of statistics that he said proved California’s superior advantages over rivals such as Texas and Florida.

“Our values ​​and our way of life are the antidote to the toxic populism of the right and to the fear and anxiety that so many people feel today,” Newsom said. “People around the world are looking to California and seeing what is possible and how we can live together, move forward and succeed together despite every imaginable difference.”

The not-so-subtle message, of course, was that the nation and the world would be better off if they ignored the social media and television images from California and instead emulated the policies and programs he and the House had developed, making him the nation’s leader.

But his portrayal of California was as one-sided and propagandistic as that peddled by right-wing media. The state’s constitutional requirement to report to the legislature on the state’s condition also suggests that he should make “recommendations” for improvement, but Newsom had none.

Rather, he said that everything in California was wonderful and said that “California is simply unrivaled across the board.”

“The state is strong and resilient,” Newsom concluded at the end of his nearly 30-minute video.