On Tuesday, two veteran California political journalists ripped California Lieutenant Governor and gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, saying he simply lacks “the stones to govern California.”
Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine of Calbuzz blasted Newsom and his “overpaid” political consultants for refusing to do interviews with the pair to explain Newsom’s vision for California.
“We’re astonished, if not surprised, that Prince Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in governor’s-race polling, is too much of a scaredy-cat wimp and cowardly wuss to answer a few basic questions about the state and what he would do as governor, as every other serious contender has,” they wrote. “Gavin’s refusal to sit down with Calbuzz — as enforced by his vaunted brain trusters — demonstrates something worse than cowardice: it’s a signal of his weakness of character and his willingness to hide from critics and questioners that ought to serve as a warning to serious political reporters, donors and activists that Newsom does not have the stones to govern California.”
One of Newsom’s rivals, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has also tried to paint Newsom as an out-of-touch elitist.
Villaraigosa has framed Newsom as “Davos Democrat” who cares more about people who drive Teslas than those who drive Toyotas or ride buses.
“When he was going to Davos, I was going to the U.S. Conference of Mayors,” Villaraigosa has recently said. “And I was doing that because I understood how important it was for us to focus at home. I do think we spend a lot of time standing up for people who drive a Tesla, and not a Toyota. Not to mention people who ride a bus.”