Republican lawmakers in California are fed up with Governor Gavin Newsom’s high-profile statements about problems happening in other states while there are still problems at home.
On Monday, Newsom took to the social media platform X to promote a new political ad criticizing an Alabama abortion ban.
“Alabama’s abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest. Now, Republicans are trying to criminalize young women’s travel to receive abortion care. We cannot let them get away with this,” Newsom wrote.
This past weekend, Newsom was also behind an announcement that California lawmakers would focus efforts on introducing legislation to allow Arizona abortionists to travel to his state to get the abortions they are being denied in their own state.
“Not enough attention has been placed on the fact that we’re not just criminalizing women’s access to reproductive care in certain states, now we’re criminalizing their travel,” Newsom told Jen Psaki on MSNBC.
Newsom has made a point to thrust himself into the national conversation on several occasions, hoping to use his influence to move the needle on issues he thinks are important. However, his critics see this as a vain attempt to get publicity at the expense of California’s problems.
In response to these recent activities from Newsom, some Republican lawmakers slammed the Governor as frustrations mount following numerous problems in the state that many consider have grown to a crisis level.
“It’s certainly frustrating that Gov. Newsom is focusing all his attention on other states besides California,” said Assemblyman Vince Fong, vice chair of the state’s budget committee, to Fox News Digital. “California is in crisis.”
Fong would go on to list all the recent problems California is struggling with, ones he feels like Newsom’s national spotlight would be a better target of focus.
“Then you add in our insurance crisis in California, we have an affordability crisis, Californians are leaving our state because they can’t afford to live and work in California, and we have crime on the rise, we have wildfire risks, we have the need to invest in more infrastructure, we have a supply chain crisis,” Fong said. “I mean, the list goes on and on. And I wish that he would spend the same amount of attention to show us as much urgency for those crises that’s facing Californians.”
The state budget deficit in California has been estimated by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office to be as much as $73 billion in the upcoming year. The governor estimated earlier this year this figure to be closer to $38 billion, but the fact remains that California lawmakers have their work cut out for them to achieve a balanced budget in the midst of California’s crises.
California Republican state Senator Brian Dahle told Fox News Digital on Monday that Newsom is too concerned with having the spotlight on him, and his focus is on chasing national issues that don’t solve California’s problems.
“If the spotlight isn’t on this governor, he’ll do everything he possibly can to ensure that it is,” Dahle said. “This latest media blitz is another example of ego getting in the way of good leadership and good governance.”
Dahle thinks that Newsom is not paying enough attention to what the actual issues are, which he thinks makes the Governor bad at proposing solutions even when he is paying attention to them.
“Critical issues that truly matter to Californians are not taken seriously – such as crime, skyrocketing electricity rates, cost of living, homelessness and education,” Dahle said. “And if he does place them on his radar, Gov. Newsom’s idea of a solution is to throw money at the problem.”
