Newsom optimistic for ‘brighter future’
Prime-time speech touts how California is managing to emerge from pandemic
Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out his optimistic vision that California is headed toward a “brighter future” as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, in a State of the State address Tuesday evening that doubled as a rebuke of the mounting effort to kick him out of office.
The prime-time speech delivered from the outfield of an empty Dodger Stadium, its 56,000-seat capacity large enough to hold the nearly 55,000 Californians who have died from COVID-19 and its parking lot now a mass vaccination site, saw Newsom mostly dispense with the legislative agenda-setting that typically defines the governor’s annual address.
Instead, he used the speech to thank Californians for their sacrifices, tout his early action to contain the virus and describe how the rollout of vaccines was helping bring an end to the pandemic.
“Even as we grieve,” Newsom said, “let’s allow ourselves to dream of brighter days ahead.”
And while he did not explicitly mention the recall campaign, whose organizers say they have collected enough signatures to force an election later this year, Newsom may as well have in a section of the speech addressed to
“We’ve made mistakes — I have made mistakes. But we own them, learn from them and never stop trying.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom
critics he accused of “promoting partisan political power grabs.”
“We won’t change course just because of a few naysayers and doomsdayers,” he said. “We will not be distracted from getting shots in arms and our economy booming again. This is a fight for California’s future.”
But polls have shown anger over Newsom’s handling of the pandemic — its impact on businesses, the slow pace of schools reopening, the high death toll despite aggressive restrictions, and that infamous French Laundry dinner — has eroded the governor’s public support.
“That was clearly the kickoff speech for his campaign against the recall,” political strategist Dan Schnur said. “This was a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ speech — its success depends on how much closer we are to the light by the
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wave Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
time the voting takes place.”
One more sign he was in campaign mode: Newsom was played off the stage after his speech by a song he used in ads during his 2018 run for governor, a Wilco rendition of the Woody Guthrie-penned “California Stars.”
In a rebuttal taped before the governor’s address, former
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, one of the leading Republican candidates to replace Newsom, argued California “needs a new and better way forward” in the wake of problems with the state’s unemployment office and the slow pace of school reopenings.
“Gavin Newsom has had almost unlimited
emergency powers for a year,” Faulconer said. “For months, we gave him the benefit of the doubt. But time and time again, he has completely failed on delivering the basics.”
Newsom acknowledged voters’ mounting frustrations in his address.
“I know our progress hasn’t always felt fast enough,” he said. “We’ve made mistakes — I have made mistakes. But we own them, learn from them and never stop trying.”
Harking back to the early days of the pandemic one year ago, he noted that California enacted the nation’s first stay-at-home order, which helped blunt a spring surge.
In one portion of the speech meant to show that residents’ sacrifice had paid off, however, Newsom exaggerated the state’s success in limiting the toll of the pandemic when he claimed “California’s death rate has remained one of the lowest per capita in the nation.” In fact, while its death rate has been lower than that of
many other large states and the nation as a whole, at 138 fatalities per 100,000 residents, California ranks in the middle of the pack nationally — 22 states have recorded lower death rates.
Still, data collected by this news organization shows COVID-19 is on the decline in California.
Unlike two months ago, when much of the state was under shelter orders at the height of a horrific surge that was claiming more than 500 lives each day, coronavirus cases now are at their lowest point since early November.
After a sluggish start, California’s mass vaccination program is picking up steam, with more than 11 million doses distributed.
And restrictions are gradually easing across the state, with 24 out of 58 counties — including nearly all of the Bay Area — now out of the most restrictive stage of California’s reopening system as of Tuesday.
Newsom also used his speech to highlight recent legislative deals directing relief money to businesses and low-income residents, and encouraging — although not requiring — schools to resume inperson learning with the help of $6.6 billion in new funding.
And he touched on the other crises that engulfed California along with the pandemic, including homelessness, economic inequality and worsening wildfires, though they were relegated to the second half of the address.
While Newsom’s news briefings during the pandemic have often seen the governor give long-winded addresses with a dizzying barrage of facts and figures, Barbara O’Connor, a professor emeritus of communications at Sacramento State University, said Tuesday’s 20-minute speech was a more clear and concise pitch to voters.
“He took credit for what has done, he accepted blame for what he hasn’t done,” O’Connor said. “It was optimistic, and that was the tone he needed to hit.”