The election of Gavin Newsom as California governor has pole-vaulted the former San Francisco mayor into one of the oddest political positions in the country.
“As one of the nation’s leading Democrats, Newsom will be bashing Donald Trump by day but praying for Trump’s re-election in 2020 at night — because if Trump doesn’t get re-elected, Newsom’s presidential aspirations will go up in smoke,” said Bill Whalen, a Republican strategist and research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
That may be the cynical way of looking at it — given the challenges Newsom will face steering the state, having a Democratic ally in the White House after 2020 would do him far more good than harm. Newsom will be better off if he gets results on California issues such as water delivery, oil drilling off the coast and greenhouse gas regulation than if he has to complain about how all his efforts were blocked in Washington.
It’s just that if a Democrat wins in 2020, the next opening for other aspiring Democratic candidates probably won’t come until 2028.
Newsom knows that 2020 is too soon for him to run. “He will, however, definitely be part of the national conversation,” said longtime friend and former media adviser Peter Ragone.
“He’s bold and he pushes the envelope, and now he is going to have the biggest role on the national stage this side of the presidency,” Ragone said.
Add in his Hollywood looks, his gift of gab, and his eye for seizing on cutting-edge issues like same-sex marriage and legalizing pot, and Newsom will command his share of attention leading up to 2020.
“He gets to occupy the ‘outsider’ role, which he does very well,” Ragone said, citing in particular Newsom’s 2004 decision to let gay and lesbian couples marry at San Francisco City Hall.
It was a role that outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown played as well. Brown regularly crossed swords with Trump on global warming, immigration and a host of other issues. He mounted three campaigns for president over the years, but at age 80 ran out of time for a fourth.
The question now is, how will time play for the 51-year-old Newsom?
If Trump stays in office until 2024, Newsom will have one term as governor under his belt — and plenty of national exposure — and be ready to run.
“But if a Democrat wins in 2020, it all goes on hold until 2028,” Whalen said.
Gavin’s digs: If you think Gavin Newsom is already measuring the drapes at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento — think again.
Newsom has hesitated when asked if he plans to move into the restored 25-room mansion, making it clear that his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and four children — all younger than 10 — may be happy to stay put in Marin County.
“We haven’t decided,” Newsom said. “Jen hasn’t seen the house. And we have the kids and schools to think about. It’s all too much to get our arms around.”
Plus, now they live only a couple of blocks from Newsom’s sister, Hilary Newsom, and her husband, Geoff Callan.
Not to mention that the governor-elect’s filmmaker wife has an office a half mile from home, in Ross, and her parents also live nearby.
Gov. Jerry Brown, during his first stint as governor starting in 1975, famously eschewed the 17-room governor’s residence built (but never lived in) by Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the suburb of Carmichael. Instead, Brown rented a $250-per-month apartment near downtown Sacramento.
His successor, George Deukmejian, formed a foundation that purchased another suburban house where first he and then-Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis lived — at least when they weren’t at their homes in Southern California. And Arnold Schwarzenegger kept a 2,000-square-foot hotel penthouse across from the state Capitol for a spell during his time as governor before opting to commute home nightly to L.A. on his private jet.
When Brown began his second stint as governor, he decidedly upgraded — splitting his time between a $3,000-a-month Sacramento loft leased by his friends and a home he purchased in the Oakland hills. But after the century-old, three-story governor’s mansion occupied by his late father, Gov. Pat Brown, back in the 1960s underwent a $4.1 million renovation, Jerry Brown — along with his wife, Anne Gust Brown, and their two dogs — moved in three years ago.
For Newsom, however, the old mansion apparently doesn’t have the same sentimental pull. While he hasn’t ruled out house-hunting in Sacramento, he may well continue the routine he developed as lieutenant governor, having a California Highway Patrol driver shuttle him from Kentfield to the capital and back.
Of course, now he’ll have additional companions — as governor, he’ll have a full security entourage wherever he goes.
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email firstname.lastname@example.org. Twitter: @matierandross