No Republican has held statewide office in California since the departure of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011, but that didn’t stop Gov. Gavin Newsom from throwing shade at the Republican over the state’s homelessness crisis.
Mr. Newsom ticked off reasons for the state’s highest-in-the-nation homeless population, including high housing prices and onerous regulations, before taking a shot at the Schwarzenegger administration, which ran from 2003-11.
“I’ve been here four years. I can’t make up for the fact [that] in 2005, we had an historic number of homeless under a Republican administration,” Mr. Newsom told Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity in an interview airing Monday night.
The comment did not go unnoticed by California Republicans such as campaign strategist Corey Uhden.
“Leave it to Gavin Newsom to declare ‘we own this’ about a 10x increase in homelessness over the past 15 years by blaming … Arnold Schwarzenegger?” tweeted Mr. Uhden.
The Democrat Newsom has said he won’t run for president in 2024. But his interview with the conservative Hannity on the nation’s most popular cable news channel suggests that the governor has ambitions for his future, despite California’s myriad social woes.
California has more homeless people than any state in the nation at 171,000 as well as the highest per-capita rate at 44 homeless for every 10,000 residents, according to the Housing and Urban Development Department’s 2022 annual report.
“The state has not made progress in the last two decades as it relates to homeless,” Mr. Newsom admitted in a video clip posted ahead of the interview.
Why? “Because housing costs are too high. Our regulatory thickets are too problematic,” he said. “Localism has been too impactful, meaning people locally are pushing back against new housing starts and construction.”
Leave it to Gavin Newsom to declare “we own this” about a 10x increase in homelessness over the past 15 years by blaming…Arnold Schwarzenegger?
— Corey Uhden (@CACoreyU) June 12, 2023
“I’ve been here four years. I can’t make up for the fact that in 2005 we had a historic number of homeless under a Republican” https://t.co/uCS7YcChEr
Mr. Newsom has raised his national profile in the last year by taking shots at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is polling second behind former President Donald Trump in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
Mr. Hannity pointed out that Florida has far fewer homeless at 26,000, and Mr. Newsom didn’t disagree.
“Of course. Not even comparable,” Mr. Newsom said.
Mr. Hannity added: “Okay, same weather, similar state. I mean, I’ve lived in both.”
Mr. Newsom replied: “The dynamics are different. That said, we own this, Sean. I’m not here defending this.”
Mr. Schwarzenegger and former state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican, both left office in 2011. No Republican has been elected statewide since then.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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