Tom Del Beccaro: California's Newsom is the last of the COVID emperors
There are no legitimate legal grounds for Newsom’s continued stranglehold over California
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Did you see the jam-packed New York City Madison Square Garden basketball game recently with over 16,000 attendees? Or maybe you plan to attend a game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field which is set to open for tens of thousands to enjoy America’s pastime.
As the world reopens, from Italy to Chicago, and the COVID pandemic recedes, our economies are coming to life. Even in places like New York and Illinois, leaders like New York Gov. Cuomo, Illinois Gov. Pritzker, and Chicago’s Mayor Lightfoot have relented.
But not in California.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}California is the land where the last of the COVID emperors – Gov. Gavin Newsom reigns.
CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM SAYS HE WON'T LIFT STATE OF EMERGENCY ON JUNE 15
After his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel where Newsom declared this past year has been "a helluva lot of fun," and despite his "promise" to reopen the state on June 15th, Newsom recently declared:
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We’re still in a state of emergency. This disease has not been extinguished, it’s not vanished, it’s not taking the summer months off. For all of the reasons I just enunciated, that’s why we are not lifting the state of emergency here in the state."
Newsom claims that the reason it must be so is that "The state of emergency remains in place to ensure that the state can continue to respond quickly to evolving conditions as the pandemic persists, including to the threat posed by variants."
As the rest of the country is proving, however, there are no legitimate legal grounds for Newsom’s continued stranglehold over California.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Keep in mind that, under California law, Government Code Section 8558(b) defines a "state of emergency" to mean:
"…the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by conditions such as . . . epidemic . . . which, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the California Public Utilities Commission."
No such epidemic or emergency exists in California today.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CAITLYN JENNER SAYS CALIFORNIA HAS DECLINED, CALLS NEWSOM BEHOLDEN TO SPECIAL INTERESTS
Californians are not facing conditions "beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities in any county," unless you are referring to the lawlessness unleashed by Newsom, L.A. District Attorney Gascon, and S.F. District Attorney Boudin, who have allowed crime rates to soar.
So, what is really going on?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The world knows that Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election this fall. A recent poll showed that 58% of California voters don’t want Newsom to run for office again. A separate poll showed voters equally divided on the Recall 45% to 45%, with Latinos favoring the recall 49% to 39%.
Newsom, who has put crisis handlers like former President Bill Clinton’s White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Meyers on the state payroll to help him, is well aware of the polling numbers and that is why the state of emergency goes on.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gavin Newsom needs the State of Emergency to justify an all mail-in ballot recall election this fall at the added cost of over $325 million. Newsom believes that his best chance of beating the recall is to have an election governed by emergency rules at triple the cost of a normal election.
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Meanwhile, Newsom simply dismissed a Sacramento Bee investigation that established that the governor's wife personally benefitted from donations to her non-profit from companies lobbying Newsom. Ahh, the privileges of power.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}So, while Newsom maybe having a helluva lot of fun suspending or changing over 400 state laws and handing out prizes for people getting the vaccine he once doubted, his COVID rules continue to harm all of those not on the government payroll.
It also provides another helluva reason Newsom must be recalled.