Tag: Gavin Newsom

Democratic political figures are facing pressure to return or redirect campaign contributions from Democratic megadonor Ed Buck after a second dead man was recently found dead in his apartment, but some – including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – are staying silent. But more than 10 current and former elected officials serving in Congress or other offices have yet to comment on the case or say if they will return the money. Gavin Newsom, California Rep. Ami Bera, California Rep. Tony Cardenas, California Rep. Jimmy Gomez, Nevada Rep. Susie Lee, California Rep. Jerry McNerney, California State Sen. Anthony Portantino and California Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard. California Rep. Pete Aguilar's campaign manager, Matt Liebman, told Fox News the contributions from Buck have been "donated to a charitable cause." “I am deeply disturbed by the latest revelations of a second death by overdose at the home of Ed Buck,” California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu said Wednesday, announcing plans to donate more than $18,000 in contributions to charities. Last year, a number of other Democratic politicians returned donations, including Buck’s own congressman, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who received $2,700 in 2016, and said he donated the full amount to an LGBT nonprofit. A campaign spokesperson for Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema told Fox News last year that she donated $18,800 she’d received from Buck to the UMOM New Day Center. In addition, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Fox News that he returned a $1,400 donation from Buck last year. West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman previously told Fox News that he had “no intention” of returning a $500 donation he received from Buck. Critics are questioning whether Buck's race — both men found dead were black — or if his wealth or political ties to the Democratic Party influenced an initial investigation of the 64-year-old who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to a slew of liberal causes and candidates over the years.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning that he's ordered FEMA to cut funding to California to prevent wildfires. The tweet read: "Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forrest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!" Politicians, firefighters and others responded to what can be seen as a very aggressive action from the president. Sen. Dianne Feinstein tweeted: "The Camp Fire killed 86 people, destroyed 14,000 homes & burned 150,000 acres. This empty threat is based on groundless complaints, and candidly isn't worth the time of day." California Assemblyman James Gallagher and Sen. Jim Nielsen released a statement saying: "This Twitter war, however, is not helpful. It will not solve the problem. There is no higher priority. Other officials: California Professional Firefighters tweeted: "President Trump's threat to cut off FEMA assistance to California is a deplorable attempt to play politics with the lives of tens of thousands of wildfire victims."

California Governor Gavin Newsom calls Trump incompetent in his inaugural speech and vows to fight the president's policies in Washington; William La Jeunesse reports from Los Angeles. #AmericasNewsroom #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) officially kicked off a potential 2020 White House bid by forming an exploratory committee for the campaign. USA TODAY While 2018 has been a pivotal year in California’s political history — particularly the Republican Party’s losing half of its congressional seats — 2019 may be even more significant. The state’s politics will likely be dominated by two rolling events: the beginning of Gavin Newsom’s governorship and California’s bid to become a factor in presidential politics. That, coupled with not having to deal with a severe budget crunch on inauguration day like most other new governors, gives Newsom the luxury of easing into the job. Dan Walters: Outgoing Gov. That’s what happened to Jerry Brown when he became governor in 1975 and 14 months later, was campaigning for president. Even if Newsom’s not in the mix for 2020, California will be, thanks to moving its presidential primary from June to March. She’s said she’d make a final decision over the holidays. Californians are likely, therefore, to be treated — or subjected — to full-blown presidential campaign efforts in California this year because mail-in ballots for the March 2020 primary will be distributed about 13 months from now.

Speaking of the White House, will Newsom have more photo ops with President Trump given his ex-wife is former San Francisco prosecutor Kimberly Guilfoyle? Will Newsom’s advocacy for LGBTQ issues and environmentalism endear him to national voters? —Tony Bravo Are ‘influencers’ here to stay? If you look at the numbers, the trend of brands using online “influencers” to help market products will continue next year. And 2019 will be the year the LGBTQ influencers truly arrive. Can San Francisco be far behind? Two magazines that took their content in a more social and political direction, Teen Vogue and Glamour, ceased their print publications this year and moved online. 2019 will likely see this continued melding of traditional style content with stories about politics and culture as publications continue to move online. (The writing is also on the wall at California-based Sunset magazine.) Society has changed since the foundings of these publications, many of which are over 100 years old.

Mayor London Breed picked the right time and the right governor to ask for clemency for her imprisoned brother. The San Francisco mayor said the attorney for brother Napoleon Brown suggested that “Jerry Brown would probably be more open” to the request because it was his last year in office. In his first stint as governor, Brown issued 400 pardons and just one commutation. This time around, he has pardoned 1,100 and commuted 152 sentences. So Breed would never have a better opportunity to make the case that her brother, who has served about half his 42-year sentence for a 2000 robbery and involuntary manslaughter, received an excessive sentence and deserves another chance at freedom. She has received legitimate criticism over the way she highlighted her title — “MAYOR LONDON BREED” in block letters at the top of her correspondence to the governor — as well as disclosures that she testified as an alibi witness, claiming she saw her brother sleeping on a couch on the night the robbery went down. We thought about it, we discussed it, we even weighed it: Should we do this because this could be problematic?” The decision was that attaching the prefix “Mayor” to her name did not really matter, in her view. The reason I got into politics and the first place, and doing the work that I’ve done even before I was an elected official, had everything to do with what happened to my family growing up in the city, and the challenges we experienced.” I can’t begrudge Breed for wanting to free her brother, and I respect her putting herself on the line to assure the state that she would help provide the support to allow him to succeed outside the prison walls. These are among the questions a governor must consider. The easy way out — see: Gray Davis — is to pretend the justice system always gets it right, and that every inmate who remains in prison, however unfairly, is one less potential Willie Horton to crop up at election time.

The “yellow vest” riots in Paris should alarm Democrats, especially the new progressive governors in blue states like California. Fuel would be more expensive, people would drive less or more thoughtfully, and the problem would be solved, tout de suite! So now enters the next governor of California, champion of sanctuary cities and San Francisco’s drug-addicted sidewalk defecators, and a promiser of higher taxes, father of the California’s budget-busting single-payer health care proposal, building his own wall against climate change. California has highest marginal income tax rate of the states, 13.3 percent. And apparently not the top 1 percent who make 24 percent of the income and pay 48 percent of the taxes. But what about the other 59 percent, the middle-income earners who pay 50 percent of the taxes, high property and sales taxes, and are increasingly unable to buy a home or even afford rent? This was apparently because Newsom as governor promised to raise taxes even further. Veiled in a tax conversation during the gubernatorial campaign were promises of higher spending, a single-payer health plan and feigned indifference to repealing property tax limits. Gov.-elect Newsom clearly might think he has a mandate to continue a high spending progressive agenda, but when might the yellow vests come out? Just about the time Newsom is getting comfortable in the governor’s chair, people will be reminded that they cannot deduct those huge California income or property taxes on the federal tax forms.

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom lobbed a rare compliment at President Trump, saying he’s grateful the president has never “played politics” with disaster declarations following major wildfires in California or last year’s Oroville dam emergency. Last month Newsom, Trump and Gov. Jerry Brown toured the Camp Fire in Butte County, which burned more than 18,000 structures and killed 85 people, as well as the Woolsey Fire in Southern California that killed three people. “We’re grateful for his time and attention. We’ve had some followup — not direct conversations, but indirect. I think there is a sincerity to help, and we are grateful for that.” Those measured words are far from the barbs that the two have been trading this year. Trump has called Newsom a “clown” who wants to allow unlimited immigration into the United States. During his campaign for governor, Newsom called the president “a small, scared bully.” Newsom said he “got a little grief” on the campaign trail when he complimented Trump for keeping politics out of disaster declarations. We’re going to get it done.” Newsom isn’t ready to declare a thaw in their deep-freeze relationship yet. But he says he’s taking it “tweet by tweet, day by day.” Melody Gutierrez is The Chronicle’s Sacramento bureau chief.

Against Trump in 2016, Clinton carried only 51% of voters aged 30-44; while Trump won just 41% of them, a substantial 8% scattered to third-party candidates. In the national House exit poll, Democrats won 58%. The margins weren't always as large in the Senate races with exit polls. In states from Pennsylvania, Minnesota (both races) and Wisconsin to Florida and Nevada, Democrats carried about three-fifths of these voters. In the national House exit poll, voters aged 45-64 split almost exactly evenly between the two parties. But this year they split about evenly in the national House exit poll (48% for Democrats versus 50% for Republicans) and in the state races they scattered more than most groups. Republicans won them convincingly in the contested Senate races in Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, Texas and Nevada; but Democrats won them with solid margins in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, carried them narrowly in North Dakota and West Virginia and essentially split them in Montana and Wisconsin. In the national House exit poll, Republicans carried 61% of whites without a college education, Trump's best group. What is clear from last week's results is the Republican advantage with these voters persisted in all regions: Klobuchar in Minnesota was the only Democratic Senate candidate to win most white voters without a college education, although Tester and Manchin came close. In the Rust Belt states that tipped the 2016 election to Trump -- especially Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- Democrats won both Senate and governor's races last week by restoring an old advantage that Trump had largely erased: In all three states, the Democratic nominees ran slightly better among whites without a college degree than their party did almost anywhere else.

The outcomes of some hotly contested races remain in doubt, but election day has come and gone — and our political future looks to be as turbulent as the recent past. Nationally, we’ll have a more conservative U.S. Senate — the Republicans are on track to hold more than their current 51 of the 100 seats — and a House of Representatives where the Democrats have regained the majority with seats to spare. This means Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco could again be House speaker and be even more of a thorn in the side of President Trump. No Republican running for statewide office appears likely to log more than 45 percent of the vote. Prop. Prop. C, which would boost two business taxes to double the funding for homeless service, took 60 percent of the vote. •Beans a’plenty: The days when Blue Bottle was that cool little find on Linden Alley are long gone. Purchased last year by Nestlé, Blue Bottle announced Tuesday it will open an outpost next year in South Korea — adding to 56 in the U.S. and 10 in Japan. Hayakawa, who in 1976 was elected by Californians to the U.S. Senate.