Regardless of one's views of Caitlyn Jenner's politics, biography or identity, the opening ad of her recently-announced gubernatorial foray is extremely well done, in my opinion. It's upbeat and aspirational, while highlighting the myriad failures inflicted upon the state by one-party Democratic rule. Releasing slick videos is not the same as consistently performing as a strong candidate, but as an opening statement, this is pretty impressive. In case you missed it:
I particularly enjoyed the quick snippets of Gov. Newsom and Speaker Pelosi engaged in infamous arrogant, hypocritical behavior at The French Laundry and a hair salon, respectively. The recall election is almost officially on, by the way, as of late April: "The petition to recall California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has collected 1.6 million verified signatures, meaning a recall election is all but inevitable," a local news station reported. "The Recall Newsom campaign announced 1,626,042 of its signatures have been verified by the Secretary of State's office, surpassing the 1,497,709 threshold necessary." And more candidates are jumping into the race:
Meet the BEAST https://t.co/mF0JdjviHP via @YouTube #CAGov #RecallNewsom #VotefortheBeast
— John Cox (@BeastJohnCox) May 4, 2021
The election later this year would ask California voters two questions: First, should Newsom be recalled? If he survives with a simple majority of the vote, the second question is moot and he remains governor. If a simple majority of voters decide he's out, then the follow-on question decides who replaces him – and the highest vote-getter becomes governor, no matter how fractured the field may be. California's COVID numbers have been really good lately, so Newsom will obviously try to argue that all of this is a partisan game, and that his restrictive policies "worked." Inconvenient to that claim is that trend lines are very strong in other states with far fewer restrictions – and California's overall performance is roughly on par with Florida's, where fewer mandates and more openness have allowed the economy to thrive, compared to California's morass. I'll leave you with this illustration of two horrible policy failures conspiring to harm businesses, workers and children in the state:
There are no employees available in California. We are paying dishwashers $21 to start. The two main reasons people tell me they won't work: 1. They are making enough on unemployment and would rather not work; 2. With schools closed, they can't pay someone to watch their children
— Chef Andrew Gruel (@ChefGruel) April 29, 2021