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Last spring, at the beginning of the pandemic, California and its Democratic governor Gavin Newsom received high praise for dealing with the coronavirus. While New York and other areas were struggling, California, which was the first state to issue an order to stay at home, appeared to have discovered something. But at some point, things changed. Angela Hart, who covers California Healthline’s health policy, says the turning point was the state’s reopening in the summer. “California opened very fast and since then, we’ve seen a series of really big mistakes on the part of this governor,” she says.
Newsom, in particular, is attracting the attention of Californians who feel cheated by the rosy picture he is painting of the state’s response to the coronavirus, while the local situation gets worse and worse. In the Monday episode of What Next, I spoke with Hart about the response to the Newsom pandemic and the increasingly serious effort to get him out of office. Our conversation was edited and condensed for clarity.
Mary Harris: When did you start thinking that so many people can be angry with Gavin Newsom that all of this can get him kicked out of office?
Angela Hart: I have seen these recall signs on all Highways and Home Depot parking lots. You see signature collection going on. So this is just out there. But then, when you start talking to people, you start to understand: they are not just Republicans. These are dissatisfied Democrats. These are not the party’s preferred voters. So you can’t really ignore the voice from all different sides of the political spectrum.
“She feels totally cheated by governor.”
– Angela Hart
My understanding is that in California there are a lot of recall efforts, actually. They are just a few of them successful.
What we are seeing out there is not the same as previous recall efforts. There were six against Gov. Newsom. This is different. This is gaining momentum across the political spectrum. It is not just Republicans who are becoming disillusioned with the governor.
I’m always trying to control myself if this is still a long shot. And I sought out many of my Democratic sources and heard no one with a strong defense of the governor and his leadership. I didn’t hear anyone say, “This is not a problem for Gov. Newsom.”
In California, it is the counties, all 58 of them, that are having to implement the coronavirus vaccination plan. So while the state says that everyone aged 65 and over can be vaccinated, that may not be the case in practice, right?
People cannot find very basic information here. People can’t figure out where to make an appointment. They can’t figure out who to call. They can’t figure out where they stand in line. I spoke with this woman Joyce Hanson for a story. She specifically said, I know that the governor does not control the supply of vaccines that arrive in California and I can wait until March or April, if that is how long it will take me to get vaccinated. She is 69 years old. But the governor hinted that she will be able to apply and be vaccinated tomorrow. Then she said, I can take it, I can take the truth, but be honest with us. And she feels totally cheated by the governor.
It seems to me that Newsom has some problems. He has this optical problem – which he seems to be doing and maybe not. And then he has the problem of what is really going on that is touching people. I remember that in November it looked like an anti-Newsom feeling arose after he was caught going to a fancy dinner without a mask. Did you see this as a turning point?
This was certainly a turning point. Governor Newsom was at French Laundry, a modern, very sophisticated and sophisticated restaurant in the California wine country.
He was with donors, right?
He was talking to donors – lobbyists. It just seemed too bad for him. And he was violating his own rules. He was having dinner with a group of friends who were not from his home. He defended himself at first and, a little later, apologized. Voters are extremely upset about this. I’ve heard it everywhere. I heard that from the Republicans. I heard it from independents. I heard that from the Democrats.
It’s optical, but it’s even deeper than that. Everyone sacrificed a lot. In general, we were locked in our homes for most of the year. And seeing the governor lightly ignoring his own rules hit a nerve.
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The questions about Newsom’s performance as governor go beyond disorganization, right? They are about money. Talk about the latest state budget that Newsom drafted.
Essentially, there is no new direct public health money for counties in the budget.
Even with a pandemic spreading.
The counties have their hands up, begging for anything, and the governor essentially said no. I asked them specifically: isn’t public health a high enough priority? Why don’t counties receive more money for public health, and in the meantime, do you continue to assign more and more responsibility to them – tracking contacts, testing, enforcing the rules and now vaccinating?
I’m going to talk about Dr. Phuong Luu, who is the health officer for Yuba and Sutter counties in rural Northern California. This is a country that is struggling to survive in terms of its response to the pandemic. You are totally drowning in responsibility. Phuong Luu has 50 people to do all those big tests, and she is about to fire 20 of them this month.
It just shows that an underfunded and overburdened local health department, which has been given all this responsibility, is stuck in this really treacherous vaccination implementation in California. You find these stories all over California.
In the coming weeks, county health departments will have some of that pressure removed from them, right? Last week, Newsom announced – somewhat suddenly – that Blue Shield would take over the vaccine in California.
But it is also causing people to simply raise their arms and be really upset. There has been a really strong conversation on social media and a woman named Nancy said it is his fault that the governor does not have a plan to distribute the vaccine. (He had a plan, but it wasn’t executed efficiently.) And now you and I will have to pay Blue Shield millions of dollars to do so, even if they had no experience in this area – total Leadership abdication.
So even correction corrects people.
People are so angry. Why can’t California do that? What has changed? We don’t know how much this contract is costing the state. We were unable to get answers. We don’t know some of the mechanisms for how this will work – really important details. It puts much of the distribution responsibility in the hands of a private health insurer when the answer really needs to be driven from a public health perspective. And it’s causing a lot of concern, it’s causing some initial reactions as well. It is really a difficult position in which this governor finds himself.
So, the organizers of this recall effort, they need to collect many signatures in a very short period of time. Can you explain a little?
Yes, they still have a long way to go. They still have about half of their subscriptions to collect. To a large extent, at this point, it is a voluntary effort. It’s not really that organized. It’s a mess the way the campaign looks on the ground. They are really proud of that. They like it to be driven by this popular energy.
And do they need to collect signatures by March?
The deadline is March 17, and then the secretary of state’s office will count everyone. Therefore, they need almost 1.5 million electoral signatures. We’ll see what they actually deliver and how many are valid. However, I think these things can really take on a life of their own. All you really need is a big check. If you look back historically, when Gray Davis was called back in 2003, you saw a check for $ 2 million from a congressman named Darrell Issa entering. And that turned this remote campaign into, Oh, man, we have to take this seriously now.
Is there anyone out there who seems to have money to spend on it and wants to tip the balance?
Many people out there have many deep pockets. The question is who, right? If the momentum keeps growing, growing and growing, you reach a political breaking point. And then all it takes is a Democrat or a Republican – no matter what your political bias – to say: We have a chance.
What do you think the Gavin Newsom saga tells other governors who are struggling to control the coronavirus?
I think the lesson is: be frank, honest with the audience. The governor here in California has made very explicit and grandiose promises since October 19, promising that California would lead a fair and uniform vaccine distribution strategy. He said: “There is light at the end of the tunnel. We are just a few months away from really seeing real progress with the vaccine. ”December 7:“ Hope is on the horizon. ”
Let me just contrast this with the message we heard from President Biden after he took office: “The brutal truth is that it will be months before we can vaccinate most Americans.” Months.
You seem frustrated with him too.
If I look frustrated, it is because I am reflecting total insanity out there. And I am reflecting, I think, the frustration I heard from many of the people I spoke with during the report. The governor outlined a reality very different from that of the people living on the ground. He’s sending a message of hope. AND We have it. AND Stay with us. California is a leader. California is in the worst of states nationally in terms of vaccines administered compared to the vaccines it has received. California is not leading. California’s failure compared to the rhetoric the governor did at the beginning.
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