“It’s no longer good enough to identify a problem, explain it away, point fingers and abdicate responsibility for solving a problem.” Mayor Gavin Newsome, 4/17/2009
The New California: Why Gavin Newsome for Governor?
Timothy Barrett
Whether or not you consider Gavin Newsome to be a new Jerry Brown, a young Senator Kennedy, or a Barrack Obama Junior, voters will have to look at Gavin Newsome as a serious contender for the California Governorship in 2010. Still in a field that is likely to include powerful candidates such as the authentic Jerry Brown who is currently California’s Attorney General, Antonio Villaraigosa who is Mayor of Los Angeles, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, and State Treasurer Bill Lockyer on the Democratic side, as well as eBay’s Meg Whitman, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former Congressman Tom Campbell on the Republican side, the question has to be asked, “Why is Gavin Newsome the right man to be governor of the new California?”
Well we might first ask’ “Why is California going to be new?” and the answer is because it has to be. When a state has been balancing on a precipice of a 40% budget deficit, business as usual just won’t do, and if voters don’t approve all six propositions on the May 19th special election ballot, the prognosis is doom and gloom. Infrastructure is failing and planned repairs and new projects will come to a halt. Education is being gutted even as we send increasing numbers of people to prison. And with the Republican party holding the majority of California State Legislators hostage due to the 2/3rds budget vote requirement and electeds being termed out of office before they learn how to stand up to powerful lobby interests, something has to change. My goodness, I hear that the state government is contemplating taking a mandatory 6% “loan” from the cities just to stay afloat. Ouch!
And along comes Gavin Newsome who has been taking every opportunity to connect with large gatherings of potential voters. Newsome’s message begins with the antidote to doom and gloom which is optimism. Yes, Gavin Newsome is selling hope. Hope that California’s geography, diversity and industrial base will lead the state back to solvency. And also hope that California will become a more compassionate and user friendly place to live and work in terms of green jobs, available health services and fully funded educational programs. And Gavin Newsome’s hopeful future seems to be substantiated by Gavin Newsome’s past experience as mayor of San Francisco.
Unlike our current sitting Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger whose qualifications prior to winning the Governorship included body builder, movie star, and gas guzzling auto industry executive, Gavin Newsome has experience in dealing with constituencies, managing government agencies, and overseeing San Francisco’s $6.1 billion dollar budget. (See chart below). These are good qualifications, but let's examine some of what Newsome has accomplished as mayor? |
Health care is no idle promise to Gavin Newsome. Newsome gets credit for overseeing the development and the implementation of San Francisco’s City-Wide Universal Health Care Plan. According to Newsome, 64% of city residents who were uninsured before the plan are now insured and by the end of 2009, every San Francisco resident will have the opportunity to opt in to the program regardless of immigration status. Non-discrimination of health care coverage according to immigration status is an important factor here as it will ease pressure on San Francisco’s emergency rooms to be primary health care providers which in turn should lower costs and result in a healthier population. This makes perfect sense when xenophobia is extracted as a consideration. Newsome would like to expand his health care plan, beginning on the county level, to the millions of uninsured in the State of California.
Newsome may also have credentials on the other staples of state politics as well, those being energy, education and jobs. On the energy front, San Francisco has rolled bach C02 emissions to 6% below 1990 levels. This is a great accomplishment but leaves them far short of the articulated goal of a 20% reduction by 2012. Newsome can boast about the fact that San Francisco is the first city in California (according to Newsome) to fully fund early childhood education. San Francisco also maintains fully funded comprehensive arts education and fully funded wellness centers in every high school and elementary school. Additionally, the city has programs to bring economic prosperity to lower income neighborhoods through green jobs initiatives.
Time will be the judge regarding the success of Newsome's forward thinking initiatives. The trend, however, is unmistakable. Newsome supports innovative thinking for the fast approaching new California. Check out the video posted above, and stay tuned as CitizenNewscaster.com brings you additional original multi-media coverage of the 2010 race for the Governor’s mansion.
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