I take a backseat to NOBODY in my disgust at Gavin Newsom.
He is clever in the way that a fox can be clever, but that only explains how he has been able to climb the rather slick pole of California Democratic Party politics.
He is, in most ways that matter, a morally bad man, both on a personal level and in his public life. The former can be disqualifying or not—after all, sometimes one needs a bad man at the right place and the right time to do the necessary thing. Shane, riding to the rescue.
But Gavin Newsom is not Shane. He is a morally vacuous man who has been destroying California, both economically and morally. He sees people's suffering, exploits it, makes it worse, and uses his failures to extort more money from taxpayers.
So how on Earth could Tom Steyer be any worse? It would be hard to beat Newsom's record for damage done to a state in so short a time.
Easy: unlike Gavin Newsom, Steyer is a true believer.
Newsom is, at the core, a grifter. His radical progressive policies served him very well as he climbed the greasy pole of California politics. They, and tons of money, got him into the mayor's office in San Francisco, then to Sacramento as Lieutenant Governor, and ultimately to the top spot.
He pillaged the taxpayers to spread money around to his friends and supporters, and build a massive fraud empire. He ingratiated himself with all the right people, from the Gettys to the trans activists, and has made bank in the process.
Steyer—he's a (mostly) self-made billionaire who quit the finance world to change the real world, and that makes him far more dangerous.
Steyer has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into political campaigns and issue promotion. His # 1 issue is climate change and funding the climate grift, pushing for higher taxes, and diverting the money to subsidize useless green energy projects. His big project was funding NextGen Climate, which has transformed into NextGen America, which pushes for a wide range of highly progressive issues.
NEW: CA gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer (D) releases an immigration platform that is radically left of Gov. Newsom. It includes:
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 14, 2026
- Abolish ICE
- Put ICE agents in jail & “treat them like the mob”.
- Bring those “kidnapped & detained by ICE back home.”
- Give CA AG power to… https://t.co/XqM8eK7Hhf
NEW: CA gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer (D) releases an immigration platform that is radically left of Gov. Newsom. It includes:
- Abolish ICE
- Put ICE agents in jail & “treat them like the mob”.
- Bring those “kidnapped & detained by ICE back home.”
- Give CA AG power to imprison ICE agents & their leadership.
- Taxpayer funded legal representation & support for illegal aliens.
- Ignore a SCOTUS ruling that allows ICE to utilize to use race, language, job, and location to contribute to “reasonable suspicion” for immigration arrests, and instead, “California should take matters into our own hands and extend legal protections to its residents, despite the federal governments failure.”
“This is about our right as a state to protect our residents,” Steyer says.
Steyer is running on a platform that is to the left of Gavin Newsom, and can do so because he, unlike Newsom, can self-fund. He doesn't have to make nice with Big Tech, doesn't care about California bleeding capital and taxpayers, and wants to turn California into a progressive paradise without any of the constraints that a more conventional politician must pay attention to.
Steyer, you may recall, ran for president in 2020, but his independence made him anathema to the establishment, which very much wanted a puppet. California is a better stage for his ambitions.
🚨Weird News: The anti-billionaire group “Our Revolution” has endorses Billionaire Tom Steyer for Governor of California pic.twitter.com/7wfgc03Qda
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) April 21, 2026
And it is Steyer's independence as a billionaire that has led the establishment Democrats to look askance at him. As you may recall, Newsom opposed the "billionaire tax" (stealing unrealized capital gains) that has driven tech bros out of California, and the Democratic Party bigwigs are worried that a Steyer governorship could kill and cook the goose that lays the golden eggs, so they are looking for an alternative.
CALIFORNIA POLL - Governor (top 2 advance)
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) April 21, 2026
🟦 Becerra: 23% (+20)
🟥 Hilton: 20% (+5)
🟥 Bianco: 17% (-6)
🟦 Steyer: 14% (+6)
🟦 Porter: 11% (-1)
🟦 Mahan: 4% (+2)
🟦 Yee: 1%
🟦 Villaraigosa: 1% (-2)
🟦 Thurmond: 1%
(+/- change vs February)
——
Independent Voter Project |… pic.twitter.com/DQai58hUir
Katie Porter is a biatch, to put it bluntly. So Xavier Becerra is looking good to them right now.
NY Post: Governor Gavin Newsom’s team is reportedly looking at backing Xavier Becerra for the next California governor after he saw a sudden spike in the polls following Eric Swalwell’s downfall.https://t.co/GlOj5Gf48F
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) April 19, 2026
Steyer had jumped up in the betting odds after Swalwell's exit from the race, jumping up into frontrunner status in the betting odds.
But, if you are to believe the polls, which I don't, Becerra has suddenly become the frontrunner. I doubt that this is organic, but by merely increasing the visibility of Becerra, the establishment hopes to make his rise a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Billionaires like me and big corporations need to pay more in taxes, because too many Californians are struggling to get by. pic.twitter.com/j11btwQ6HH
— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) April 14, 2026
Far be it from me to claim to understand California politics, either in what motivates voters or in what the levers of power the establishment has to manipulate results. There is a lot of pay-for-play in that state, and lots of fraud that takes place in the open. Who knows what happens behind the scenes?
For that matter, who knows whether Steyer can pay more for the votes?
Becerra, though, is an Obama guy, having served in his cabinet, so he can pull some levers too. Certainly, the powers that be in California would rather have him because they know he will play ball.
Who knows what Steyer would do? He is a true believer and far more dangerous to both the state and the establishment. He might go along with most of the grifts; that has been his play with the climate BS.
The knives are out in this race. It looks like the Swalwell hit made it likely that a Democrat will make it past the jungle primary, which was the whole point.
Now we will have to see whether the establishment can get Becerra over the finish line, or whether Steyer can use his big money and outsider connections with activists to seal the deal.
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