Will Newsom airbrush state’s problems if he runs for president?

The easy victory of Proposition 50 has cemented Gov. Gavin Newsom’s standing as the national leader of anti-Donald Trump forces. Should it help Democrats regain control of the U.S. House next November, the measure will have achieved its central goal of reducing the president’s ability to force passage of policies that millions of Americans find cruel and destructive — and as a result, Newsom could have more momentum going into the 2028 presidential campaign than any Democrat making his first bid for the White House since former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984.

But where does this leave the state he still governs until January 2027? Will Newsom’s focus on his national ambitions reduce the time he spends in trying to address our problems? Will he even admit that they exist?

Consider the crucial point made Sept. 30 by Dan Walters. The CalMatters columnist noted that Trump can’t be blamed for “California’s high rates of homelessness, poverty and unemployment, its very high living costs, its shortage of housing, its long-standing water supply conundrum, the shortcomings of its public school system or the multibillion-dollar deficits in its state budget.” This doesn’t remotely mean that Newsom can be blamed for these problems, nearly all of which he inherited from a governor — Jerry Brown — with a strikingly limited agenda. Brown cared deeply about responsible budgets but was otherwise blasé about the dysfunction that he, in turn, had inherited from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Whatever they think of Trump, Californians shouldn’t accept a state government in which most entrenched problems never seem to get better. Newsom’s popularity may be on the rise, but that’s not because residents’ pessimism about the future is fading. Public Policy Institute of California polls show more than one-third of residents have thought about leaving because of the high cost of living and that more than 70% think that the children of present residents will be worse off financially than their parents.

These findings are at odds with Newsom’s constant depiction of California as an inspiring, pace-setting place with the fourth-largest economy in the world. But the governor has boxed himself in. Admitting his state has serious problems gives his nemeses — starting with Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Fox News — ammunition to come after him and bring him down from his Prop. 50 triumph.

This, alas, also boxes his constituents in. All the struggling, impoverished Californians who wish their lives were better? Let them eat vibes.