SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Standing alone in center field of an empty Dodger Stadium, California Gov. Gavin Newsom cast himself as a bold if imperfect leader and his state as on the cusp of a new day.
Officially, it was the annual State of the State address, but the Tuesday night speech also served as the unofficial campaign kickoff for the first-term Democratic governor, who almost certainly will face a recall election later this year fueled by criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Newsom shed his typical long-windedness and sometimes hard-to-understand jargon for a crisp, 28-minute speech that he scheduled in the evening in Los Angeles to try to maximize viewership.