California faces an unusually large number of challenges that require immediate attention, ranging from soaring home prices to a homeless epidemic to a crime wave. Yet Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Democratic allies seem fixated on Texas, as they announce proposals that score symbolic points on their perceived rival.
Last month, Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Assembly Bill 1594, which allows people to file lawsuits against gun manufacturers that violate the state’s gun-control laws. It’s a transparent rebuke to Texas’ measure that allows private lawsuits against anyone who violates its ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
And last month, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said that he is crafting legislation to “protect and provide refuge for transgender kids and their parents if they flee to California,” according to a report in CalMatters. That, too, is an effort to tweak Texas and Idaho, which have passed laws that ban parents from approving gender-affirming procedures for their kids.
“California’s Democratic leaders have a message for Texans and Floridians opposed to their states’ stances on abortion, LGBQT rights and gun control: You’re more than welcome in the Golden State,” the publication explained. CalMatters also pointed to Newsom’s State of the State address, in which the governor repeatedly contrasted California’s legislative approach to that of Texas and Florida.
Newsom touted the “California Way,” which involves not only our state’s progressive approach to social issues, but its emphasis on worker “protections,” climate-change policy and electric vehicle development. He noted that California had “more new business starts during the worst of the pandemic than Texas and Florida combined.”
Newsom didn’t discuss California’s declining population, as more than 80,000 Californians hightail it to fast-growing Texas every year — or the steady outmigration of major companies, as well. Despite Democratic efforts to lure Texans to California to escape some of that conservative state’s policies, liberal California is losing a congressional seat whereas Texas is gaining two of them.
This Texas v. California banter has long been tiresome. In 2013, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry came to California on a business-recruitment trip. That drew then-California Gov. Jerry Brown’s wrath. Perry also ran an ad blasting our business climate, to which Brown inelegantly replied: “It’s not a serious story, guys. It’s not a burp. It’s barely a fart.” He followed up with impressive California job-growth statistics.
Yes, California’s economy is growing despite its chronic mismanagement, but there are far better ways to lure people here than subsidizing abortions. It should go without saying, but California can best mess with Texas (beyond pointing to our weather, beaches and scenery) by making the Golden State a magnet again for entrepreneurs and families as it had been for most of its post-Gold Rush history.
This editorial board isn’t interested in comparing and contrasting the nation’s two most populous states. We don’t think Newsom and his fellow Democrats should be spending legislative time doing so, either, given that it merely bolsters national political narratives. Newsom can highlight those contrasts if he runs for president, but for now he should focus on fixing our state. Lawmakers should stop letting politicians in Austin live rent free in their heads when the real work is piling up in Sacramento.