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Newsom’s $19 million ad buy: impeachable, by his own definition

Gavin Newsom is spending $19 million of California taxpayer money to make himself look good before a presidential campaign.

The state is running a $3 billion deficit. One in five Californians lives in poverty. Businesses are leaving in droves.

And the governor’s response is a marketing campaign to polish California’s image after his sixteen years in statewide office.

In other words, publicly funded reputation management for a man eyeing the White House.

California doesn’t have an image problem, but it does have a governance problem. No amount of paid advertising will paper over that — though Newsom is clearly willing to spend other people’s money to try.

This is California governance in miniature. When reality becomes uncomfortable, hire a publicist.

The request for proposals reads less like a public policy document and more like a crisis memo drafted by a Hollywood studio after a catastrophic box-office flop.

California, we are told, has been “maligned.” Critics are spreading “misinformation.” The state simply needs a better story, better messaging, better optics.

What it manifestly does not need, apparently, is better policy.

But California’s reputation isn’t being drafted in red-state........

© New York Post