Gavin Newsom knows the popular image of him is of a smooth talker with slicked-back hair, the wealthy liberal who co-owns a vineyard.
He knows, regarding the presidential ambitions he’s hardly hiding, that the biggest question he would face out of the gate is whether he could sell Americans on wanting California to represent their future rather than seeing it as the place where the wackiest liberal dreams go to run wild.
The redistricting fight that Newsom and the state legislature are launching Monday could, he and his inner circle believe, give him all the rebuttals he needs.
He didn’t fight for that law though, we dragged him to do the right thing, and we sacrificed carve outs to get it signed.
The carve outs are somewhat reasonable, airport/theme parks restaurants for instance are already ridiculously overpriced partly because of the absurd concession fees they pay to exist there, adding a huge wage increase would really be difficult to manage. Restaurants like coffee shops in grocery stores or theme parks are usually store/park employees already, no? I don’t know the deep details but these carve outs seem somewhat reasoned thanks to different wages possibly already being paid…I’m sure there is room for someone to get screwed though. There always is.
So he listened
He beats me because he wants me to be better.