Many election trial heats mention California Gov. Gavin Newsom as a potential Democratic presidential candidate. The governor has struggled with California’s epidemic of homelessness and drug abuse. When potential presidential voters breakdown his record they might not like what they see.
Homelessness and Drug Abuse Key Issues
During the pandemic, homelessness in California spiked, as did deaths among the homeless due to drug abuse.
California’s state capital of Sacramento experienced a 67 percent increase in homelessness from 2020 to 2022. Homeless encampments have become sites of crime and drug abuse spread across the state.
“We’ll fund success not failure. I want to see results. They asked for money for encampments. They took $50 million, and we made it $750 million while keeping it in the budget. Let’s see results,” Newsom said in January. “Let’s do our job. This homelessness crisis is out of control.”
His administration has spent $18.4 billion on homelessness, symbolizing his attention to the issue.
In 2020 at the height of the pandemic San Francisco saw more than twice as many people die from drug overdoses compared with the prior four years. About 54 percent of deaths were due to overdoses.
Newsom had to call in the California National Guard in San Francisco to shut down drug markets in San Francisco, where fentanyl has become an epidemic problem, and disrupt the supply chain. In 2023 so far, San Francisco has seen a 40 percent increase in overdose deaths, mostly in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
“Two truths can co-exist at the same time: San Francisco’s violent crime rate is below comparably sized cities like Jacksonville and Fort Worth — and there is also more we must do to address public safety concerns, especially the fentanyl crisis,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re taking action. Through this new collaborative partnership, we are providing more law enforcement resources and personnel to crack down on crime linked to the fentanyl crisis, holding the poison peddlers accountable, and increasing law enforcement presence to improve public safety and public confidence in San Francisco.”
Did New Laws Exacerbate the Problem?
Riverside County Sherriff Chad Bianco blames changes in California law brought about by Proposition 47 for this situation that has ravaged the state.
California reduced the penalty for possession of small amounts of hard drugs in 2014 from a felony to a misdemeanor. That led the state to deprioritize drug arrests and release over 13,500 offenders from prison without putting them through drug rehabilitation.
“When we stopped enforcing drug rules and laws,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told Fox News, “we started seeing a major, major, major increase in what we see now as the severe mental health problems of people that are living on the street.”
Newsom defended Proposition 47 in December 2021, claiming it had reduced property crime.
In March, Californians surveyed in a Quinnipiac Poll said they did not want to see Newsom run for president. Only 37 percent of Democrats wanted Newsom to run for president and 54 percent said they did not.
He survived a recall election in 2021. Opponents who pushed for the election blamed Newsom for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and inconsistently using his executive authority against businesses.
Many griped about his seemingly hypocritical dining at a Napa winery while the rest of the state was locked down due to COVID-19.
Californians have voted with their feet and moved out of California in droves since Newsom became governor. If there is any indication of his gubernatorial abilities this symbolizes how he and the state he governs is viewed.
John Rossomando’s work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award in 2008 for his reporting.
