Newsom sends letter to Legislature for ‘State of the State’ address
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) sent a letter to the state legislature instead of delivering a “State of the State” address, as is usually done.
The five-page letter was sent on Wednesday as a “reflection[ion]during the governor’s recent tour of the state, during which he delivered a series of campaign-style speeches on various policies.
The California state constitution does not require a physical address. It simply states, “The Governor shall report to the Legislature each calendar year on the condition of the State and may make recommendations.”
(Similarly, the U.S. Constitution does not require an in-person address to Congress, and President Thomas Jefferson sent the “State of the Union” report as a letter, rather than delivering it as a speeches – a practice that was only later championed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and has been widely followed ever since.)
Newsom’s letter stated, in part:
We face extremes. From the extreme policy across the country that threaten to roll back the progress we have made – and the rights revolution of the past 60 years – to fight the extreme time that threatens our way of life with record droughts, increasingly horrific wildfires, and now storms and floods devastating communities like Planada, Pajaro and the mountain towns of San Bernardino.
Newsom’s references to Pajaro and the mountain towns of San Bernardino may seem ironic to some, as he is criticized by Pajaro residents for his broken flood relief promises and left the state for a trip. personnel in Mexico as people in mountain towns were trapped. home during deadly blizzards.
The rest of the letter is a bit short on details. Newsom mentions an executive order to reduce the price of prescription drugs; criminal justice reform at San Quentin prison; and plans toREBUILD(original emphasis) the state’s “mental and behavioral health system” as part of a response to homelessness.
Past “state of the state” addresses have sometimes proved controversial, such as when Newsom canceled the state high-speed train from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2019, saying it “would cost too much and. .. would take too long.
Joel B. Pollak is editor of Breitbart News and host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot Sunday nights from 7-10 p.m. ET (4-7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book Neither Free Nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellow. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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