You know how voters often say they want campaigns to be decided on the issues?
Well, that might actually happen in the California governor’s race, because Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox are both eager to contrast their views of how the state should be led.
But looming over the campaign as the November general election got underway Wednesday is, of course, President Trump.
In a round of media interviews on the day after he clinched a spot on the November ballot, Cox slammed Newsom for paying too much attention to the president.
“Being at war with Donald Trump isn’t gonna make anybody’s life better,” he said.
California Democrats, Cox argued, have been so focused on the president that they’ve made their state’s cost-of-living unaffordable.
“I don’t think Donald Trump caused the housing crisis,” he added. “I don’t think Donald Trump drove our gasoline prices to $4 a gallon and instituted a gas tax that people hate.”
As Newsom stopped by the San Francisco Ferry Building at lunchtime to thank supporters, he said it’s important for Californians to fight the president’s agenda on immigration, health care and the environment — an agenda he says Cox shares.
“I’m gonna vigorously oppose those efforts,” Newsom told reporters. “But also, address the anxiety that people feel that we shouldn’t just be playing defense in this state — that we need a positive alternative vision. And that’s my responsibility now in the general election, to put together a comprehensive strategy for this state that moves past Trump.”
The two rivals agree on much of what ails California — it’s their prescriptions that couldn’t be more different. Voters have five months to make up their minds.
Voters have five months to make up their minds.
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