With his reelection against a little-known GOP state senator more or less assured, Gov. Gavin Newsom waded deeper into the politics of far-away Florida with his Thursday announcement of a $100,000 donation to the Democrat running against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The donation to Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida now running for his old job as a Democrat, follow’s Newsom’s July 4 weekend ad by in the Sunshine State in which he criticized DeSantis, a rising GOP star and potential 2024 presidential candidate in a race Newsom is rumored to be eyeing.
“For a governor to be taking his money and parking it in someone else’s race is unusual,” said political analyst Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution fellow who worked in former Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration and consulted for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Los Angeles mayor Richard J. Riordan.
“Time to make Ron DeSantis a one-term governor,” Newsom said on Twitter of his potential presidential rival, announcing “I’m pledging $100k right now” to Crist. “Who will join me in helping Charlie become the next Governor of Florida?”
Newsom’s campaign did not immediately respond to questions about the donation.
Newsom has said he’s not running for president and that Vice President Kamala Harris should be President Joe Biden’s successor as the Democratic Party’s nominee. But polls have shown both Biden and Harris to be unpopular, even among Democrats, and Newsom often is mentioned as an alternative should Biden and Harris bow out.
Crist tweeted a thank you to Newsom for his “generosity and support.”
DeSantis hasn’t commented on Newsom’s donation to his reelection rival on Twitter. But his campaign spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, dismissed the threat from Newsom.
“Who needs opposition research when your opponents are like this,” Pushaw tweeted Thursday.
Whalen said governors typically help their party’s other candidates by hosting fundraisers or traveling across the country to join them in campaign appearances. But he said it will be telling to see if Newsom travels to Florida, Georgia, Texas and other states where Democrats are trying to unseat Republican governors.
If the races are close, Whalen said, those candidates may not want to be linked to Newsom and California, where far-left policies and the states high taxes, home and gas prices, rampant homelessness and other problems could potentially alienate undecided voters.
“For Democrats in other states, this is complicated lining up with this guy,” Whalen said.
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newsome is garbage.
“Newsom and California, where far-left policies and the states high taxes, home and gas prices, rampant homelessness and other problems”
Why would any rational person want the destructive agendas of the treasonous, dishonest, unethical, immoral, socialist Democrat Party??
MORE AND MORE, i wonder, WHY IS IT EVEN LEGAL/allowed, for those living in state A, to PAY TO INFLUENCE THE ELECTION, for state Z??
You can find Sunstroke Newsom all over the sidewalks of San Francisco.
That is, if you go through his dubious list of so-called accomplishment, his only real legacy.
And now he hopes to do it to Florida, and eventually, the entire Country.
Newsom can afford to be so generous,,,with other people’s money. I guarantee you this will not come out of his personal bank account, and probably even never will. Just more media hype to promote the allusion that politicians actually create their own wealth rather than the truth that they just redistribute the real wealth and life force earned by others. Keep an eye on his campaign fund donations of dirty money I am sure is laundered in ways that make “THE BIG GUY” look like an amateur wash woman.
Makes me wonder, HOW MUCH of it came from WE the tax victim?
Of course!
Them disgusting, deplorable dispicable dem-rats gotta stick together like the vermin they are.
* Charlie Crist began his political career as a Republican, serving in the Florida Senate from 1993 to 1999,
* April 2010, Crist left the Republican Party to run as an independent.
* On December 7, 2012, Crist joined the Democratic Party.
I believe that self-righteous, self-serving Charlie Crist is not loyal to anyone or anything except himself.
Charlie Crist is only in politics for riches and power that he can con out of the taxpayers.
Spoiled Rich Kid Newsom can afford it; How many sidewalks in El Lay could be power washed of feces, etc. with that $100K do you reckon?