Newsom uses speech to defend virus response, downplay recall
For months, as opponents gathered signatures from voters ready to remove him from office, Gov. Gavin Newsom publicly ignored the recall drive that could imperil his political future.
But on Tuesday night, from one of the biggest stages of his governorship, Newsom acknowledged for the first time the threat of a “partisan political power grab” that he decried as a distraction from the state’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic and his effort to build a more equitable California.
“I just want you to know, we’re not going to change course just because of a few naysayers and doomsdayers,” Newsom said during his annual State of the State address.
“So to the California critics, who are promoting partisan political power grabs with outdated prejudices, and rejecting everything that makes California truly great, we say
this: We will not be distracted from getting shots in arms and our economy booming again,” he said. “This is a fight for California’s future.”
Speaking from an empty Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Newsom gave a forceful defense of his response to the pandemic, asserting that “people are alive today” because of his sometimes controversial public health measures. He said he adopted the first statewide stayathome order in the nation nearly a year ago and noted California’s death rate from the coronavirus is lower than the national average and other large states such as Texas and New York.
“Look, we’ve made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes,” he said. “But we own them, we learn from them and we never stop trying.”
Newsom also promised that California would not go back to normal when the pandemic ends — “Normal was never good enough. Normal accepts inequity,” he said — a potential preview of his campaign message in a likely recall election later this year.
Among the policies he said would put California on a more just path forward is a recent $7.6 billion state stimulus package, which will send $600 checks to more than 5 million lowincome households, regardless of their immigration status, and provide billions of dollars in grants to help small businesses adjust their operations to the pandemic. Newsom said threequarters of the grants so far have gone to businesses owned by women, people of color and veterans, or to those operating in rural or lowincome communities.
The speech broke with recent tradition for the State of the State, which governors have delivered midmorning to a joint session of the Legislature.
The governor’s aides said they chose Dodger Stadium, which has been operating as a mass vaccination site, to represent both “California’s spirit of service” and those lost to the coronavirus. The stadium can hold 56,000 people, slightly more than the number of Californians who have died of COVID19.
Whether the address can put Newsom in a more favorable light with the public remains to be seen. Even before it began, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a potential Republican opponent in the recall, slammed the governor as someone who would “say anything to save his political career. Words are all he has.”
Robin Swanson, a Democratic political consultant, said Newsom struck too cheerful of a tone for how voters are feeling. Given how many Californians are still struggling a year into the pandemic, she said she would have liked to hear him empathize more with their pain.
“He very badly wants the next chapter to start,” Swanson said. “I’m not sure people are ready to hear all of the positive things.”
The governor has been working hard to turn around public perception after a series of missteps over the winter months, as the coronavirus surged to record levels in California, battered support for Newsom and helped fuel the recall drive against him.
After an early rollout of its vaccination system that was among the slowest in the country, Newsom has toured vaccine sites across the state for more than a month to highlight improving numbers. He has struggled to live down his attendance at a November birthday party for his political adviser at the French Laundry restaurant and faces mounting frustration from parents over the longdelayed return to inperson instruction in many school districts.
With the deadline to turn in petitions for the recall a week away, proponents said Sunday that they had collected nearly 2 million signatures. They need about 1.5 million valid signatures from registered voters to qualify for the ballot later this year. Local elections officials will verify their petitions through April.
“Tonight was nothing more than political theater,” said Randy Economy, a spokesperson for the recall campaign. “It was about him promoting himself. It was him going to Hollywood and being a big star.”
Newsom bragged Tuesday night that California has administered nearly 11 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine and took credit for changing the conversation about schools in recent weeks “from whether to reopen, to when.” His administration recently set aside 10% of first vaccine doses for educators, which he said more than 200,000 teachers and other school staff received in the past week alone, helping push more districts to announce plans to bring students back into the classroom.
“We won’t be defined by this moment,” he said. “We’ll be defined by what we do because of it.”