Realizing that he won\u2019t be able to sell the nation\u2019s voters on his record as governor, Newsom now wants voters to buy a tale of rags-to-riches.<\/b>
\nGavin Newsom is running for President. You can expect him to declare for the presidency by December of this year.
He already has a book coming: \u201cYoung Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.\u201d
At age 58, that might seem like false advertising.
The book purports to be a tell-all \u2014 coming clean, as it were, clearing the deck before opposition researchers (Democrat and Republican) can dig up dirt on their own.
But there\u2019s one thing Newsom doesn\u2019t want you to know about: his dismal record as governor.
Yes, California is among the wealthiest states. It\u2019s also among the poorest.
The Public Policy Institute of California noted that \u201cin 2023, 31.1% of Californians were either at or near poverty.\u201d California is also worst in homelessness, and in unemployment.
Worse yet, according to the U.S. News and World Report, California ranks 50th in opportunity among the states. California also ranks 50th in that all-important presidential election category of \u201caffordability.\u201d
All that despite California arguably being the most blessed piece of real estate on earth.
So, what\u2019s an ambitious politician without a good record to do?
Knowing he won\u2019t be able to sell the nation\u2019s voters on his record as governor, Newsom now wants voters to buy a tale of rags-to-riches.
Like many of his spin jobs, however, it\u2019s a tall tale, tailor-made for a White House run, but at a far remove from reality.
As California Post recently noted, Newsom\u2019s \u201csignature aesthetic originates from a desperate attempt to reinvent himself.\u201d
Newsom maintains he invented his debonair persona in response to a difficult high school experience with bullies.
His memoir is an attempt to give his past a makeover \u2014 this time, to cover up failures that are all his own.
Unfortunately for Newsom, we live in the digital age \u2014 and nothing disappears.
For example, Newsom claims he had a poor upbringing.
But in 1991, Newsom made his first appearance in a photo in San Francisco Chronicle, posing with Bill Getty, from the billionaire oil family. The article was entitled \u201cChildren of the Rich.\u201d
Importantly, that picture is from the same time frame \u2013 high school \u2013 that Newsom claims was so rough for him.
However bad it may have been for Newsom, it certainly wasn\u2019t bad for very long.
After all, it was Newsom\u2019s Getty connection that allowed the future governor to enter the wine business that built his personal fortune.
Newsom was just 25 years old at the time. At such a young age, Newsom became wealthy in an industry that caters to elite tastes.
Feeling sorry for him yet? Don\u2019t.
As the left-of-center Sacramento Bee reported in 2017, \u201cHis thirtieth birthday party, given by the Gettys, was Great Gatsby-themed, down to the flappers and Charlestons.\u201d (The title of the article: \u201cThis millionaire might be California\u2019s next governor. How Gavin Newsom got connected.\u201d)
There\u2019s more.
According to the Bee, \u201ca Getty trust paid Gavin Newsom for investment advice, and Gordon and Ann Getty provided gifts and loans for his home, according to reports and disclosures. They paid about $233,000 toward his first wedding reception.\u201d
From Getty, to power broker Willie Brown (who appointed Newsom to a vacant supervisor\u2019s seat in San Francisco), to political mentor Governor Jerry Brown, to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (distantly related through marriage), Newsom has strolled through life down a gilded brick road.
Don\u2019t take my word for it. Consider this title of an op-ed written in 2018, when Newsom was running for governor, despite his total failure on homelessness as San Francisco\u2019s mayor.
Marcos Breton \u2014 again, from the Bee \u2014 wrote an article titled: \u201cThe privileged candidate: Why do we let Gavin Newsom get away with this?\u201d
Breton warned that \u201cit may take future social scientists to explain why current California voters were so willing to give this guy a pass on all the things we know about him.\u201d
And that was before he was governor. That was before his infamous dinner at the French Laundry in 2020, where he defied his own coronavirus policies. It was before the \u201cbehested payments\u201d to his favored projects, including his wife\u2019s charity.
Newsom has always escaped accountability. The question is why.
Breton called it \u201cprivilege\u201d:
\u201cThe 50-year-old lieutenant governor and former mayor of San Francisco is the living embodiment of privilege, and people seem to be OK with that. He has white male privilege. Class privilege. Wealth privilege. The privilege of good looks. All creates a Teflon exterior, protecting Newsom\u2019s horrendous lapses of judgment and character, excusing his questionable background.\u201d
Given all that, it would be a terrible lapse in judgment for voters to buy Newsom\u2019s claims of a difficult childhood, or to fall for his pleas for empathy.
Instead, ask about what he doesn\u2019t want you to know.
Tom Del Beccaro is an author, speaker, and the former chairman of the California Republican Party.<\/p>\n