California’s Progressive Fall Guy

Gavin Newsom is paying for the policy failures of Sacramento.

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"The recall is in part a referendum on the Governor’s excessive and destructive Covid lockdowns. California boasts the third highest unemployment rate in the country (7.7%). Last fall he was caught violating his own Covid rules with friends at the ritzy French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley. Weeks later he shut down businesses, including outdoor dining.

To many voters, the dinner symbolized progressive detachment from the problems that Californian are experiencing in their daily lives. Take crime, which has been surging as progressives have essentially decriminalized drug use and petty theft and released thousands of criminals from jail. Homicides rose 31% last year. Last Monday former California Sen. Barbara Boxer was mugged in Oakland. “I was yelling at the kid ‘Why would you do this to a grandma?’ but he could care less,” Ms. Boxer said.

A homeless man attempted to assault Mr. Newsom in Oakland in June, and fortunately he had a security detail to protect him. Ordinary Californians aren’t so privileged. In April an elderly woman was stabbed to death while walking her dog in a Riverside park by a mentally ill homeless woman who had been arrested and released after a previous attack.

Parents in suburbs who bring their children to parks have to dodge drug use and the homeless. Many are unhappy that unions kept schools closed for a year. Now Democrats in Sacramento are degrading the state education curriculum with critical-race theory while pressing for racial preferences. This explains in part Mr. Newsom’s troubles among Asians."