Is Governor McDaddy for Real?

Everybody agrees that our new Governor Gavin Newsom's adorable 2 year old Dutch stole the show on Monday when he charged the stage while daddy was giving his inaugural address.  But as Mayor McHottie becomes Governor McDaddy, two things nag at me as to whether Gavin Newsom is for real:

1.  Daddy Credentials. While I have no doubt that Marcos Breton in the Sacramento Bee today is correct that Gavin Newsom is a loving father (Tiny pat on Newsom's back), a quote in Monday's story on the Newsom family's visit to the Sacramento Train Museum raises some question as to how well Gavin knows his toddler: 

“This (event) was literally designed for Dutch,” [Newsom] told reporters. “But he’s still looking for Thomas the train. If there’s one thing I can contribute to Sacramento, maybe it’s getting a Thomas train exhibit for 2-year-olds.”

See how sad Thomas the Tank Engine Looks?

It may seem like a small thing but anyone who has ever spent the tiniest time with a Thomas-oriented child knows immediately that Thomas's name is "Thomas the Tank Engine" not "Thomas the Train."  Our children were into Thomas approximately twenty years ago and my husband and I immediately noticed the discrepancy.   How much time can he be spending with Dutch if he doesn't know Thomas's name? [Note:  Eight years as Lieutenant Governor and a cakewalk gubernatorial election should have provided ample time with children]

2.  Support for Single Payer Health Care.  Governor Newsom campaigned on single payer health care yet the folks with health care chops he has appointed are more of the incrementalist, Obama/Clinton mode.  No health care insider in Sacramento is going to tell the media the truth about these appointments because they need to curry favor with the new administration.  I spent twenty years in and out of health care policy in DC and Sacramento but am out of the business so I can talk:  

• Newsom's Cabinet Secretary: Ana Matosantos--as Brown's Budget Director she was the hatchet person on health care costs and she was good at it.  Any expansion of health care coverage was generally met with an eye roll.  Even if directed to implement single payer, she is temperamentally conservative and cautious--would undermine at every turn.

• Chief of Staff: Ann O'Leary--Ann's career has been spent implementing and advancing incremental health care expansions for the Clintons (first Children's Health Insurance Program for Bill Clinton and then as health care point person for Hillary's Presidential 2016 presidential bid).  While she may be a perfectly good chief of staff, it is difficult to imagine that she could or would advance single payer health care.

• Office of Strategic Engagement: Daniel Zingale--Daniel is former Senior Vice President of the California Endowment, the largest foundation doling out health care dollars in the state.  He is brilliant.  He is bold.  He is creative.  He is a good hire.  And he is also deeply entwined in California healthcare politics and money which depend upon undermining single payer.  If anyone could make single payer happen if he wanted, it would be Daniel, but I don't see it.

This is a subject for another piece, but folks who support Medicare for All -- or statewide government provided universal health insurance commonly called "single payer"--need to understand that health care is the single fastest growing industry in the state and the country.  It consumes a massive amount of the GDP and all of big business is intertwined with its success.  This also includes traditionally progressive unions most importantly the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) which represents the workers at Kaiser Permanente.  Nothing gets through the Democratically controlled California Legislature that the SEIU is strongly against.  SEIU carries the water for Kaiser Permanente.  Kaiser Permanente is opposed to any government health insurance unless they are the insurance.   So to have any shot at all at advancing the agenda he campaigned on, Newsom needs to have appointed someone with vision and commitment to universal health insurance.  It looks otherwise.

So far, Governor McDaddy is striking out on tank engines and health care advisors.  Stay tuned.

My life with Jerry Brown

I am surprised to find that I am grieving a little as today Jerry Brown leaves office and the new governor Gavin Newsom is inaugurated. Here are some highlights of my life with Jerry Brown:

1965--I am four years old at the opening of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, with my grandfather Culver “Nick” Nichols standing next to Jerry’s father Governor Pat Brown.

1974--As a teenage girl in California I was grooving, like much of America to “You’re No Good,” “When Will I be Loved?” and “Different Drum” while I ogled pictures of Jerronstadt--which is what we would have called young handsome California Governor Jerry Brown and huge pop sensation Linda Ronstadt if they had a terrible celebrity couple names back in the 70's.

1976--While everyone else was thinking about Proposition 13 which slashed property taxes and ruined California's public schools, I was out knocking doors for Proposition 15 to end construction of new nuclear power plants, very angry at Jerry for opposing it. It was my first failure for many ballot initiatives that I worked to pass.

1992--I get excited about Jerry's "progressive" (and third) run for President and call his ground-breaking toll free number to pledge money for his campaign.





1993--I allow Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook to pull me quickly into another room to avoid having to encounter Jerry Brown at Ralph Nader's Center for the Responsive Law where he has been hanging out with nothing to do. We are late for a meeting of the single payer health care coalition, at odds with Hillary Clinton's health care plan, and can't afford another long conversation with Jerry. He has grown his hair long is wearing large belt buckles and is just generally a mess. But what do I care, he is done with politics [note: this era is not mentioned on his Wikipedia page].

2011-2013 -- as the health care advocate for the state's largest union of health care workers working to implement Obamacare in California, I grumble, resent, and tussle with the Governor's office. Why does he cut health care benefits in the recession? Why won't he commit to expanding health care benefits for the working poor? Despite the massive access and influence of my union I am in the same room with the governor only twice: at the annual state prayer breakfast and one time in 2012 when I attend a bill signing in Southern California. Fun note: it looks like I am about to kiss then Assemblymember Toni Atkins of San Diego who is now the leader of the California State Senate.

2015--I resent the Governor for claiming to be an environmentalist and continuing to allow fracking. I compare him unfavorably to Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York (of whom I am generally no fan), who banned fracking in 2015.

2015-to the present--as a private citizen not particularly engaged in politics, I have really fallen in love with our crusty, fiscally conservative, moderately liberal governor. I love his stupid latin references, his meandering style, his refusal to do what's expected of him, and his dog, Sutter.

Today--I am sad to see the era of Jerry Brown fade away. He was my governor for 16 years. He was my foil. He was my fool. And he has no idea who I am. No more Jerry Brown in my life?