The optics of Gov. Gavin Newsom, with egg on his face after more egregious behavior, are crummy.
Sacramento’s self-anointed “savior” of all things Californian ( including forests and fragile fresh water fish) was caught on camera Nov. 6, seated at a table in one of the state’s most expensive restaurants, The French Laundry, breaking baguettes with 11 of his closest disciples.
Republicans, who won back two House seats Nov. 3, are licking their chops along with disaffected Democrats, who are tired of the unsavory machinations of Mr. Newsom, in calling for a recall of the governor.
Earlier this year, Gov. Newsom was roasted by environmentalists after he approved fracking permits for Aera Energy.
The birthday party for Jason Kinney, one of Gov. Newsom’s confidants and a lobbyist for Axiom Advisors that advises Aera Energy — a joint venture of Shell and Exxon Mobil — was also attended by two top officials of the California Medical Association, Dustin Corcoron and Janus Norman.
The fancy feast may be the smug governor’s Last Supper at the famed Napa eatery, where the typical tab per person can easily be $700, before wine and tip.
The expensive faux pas may serve to cut short the two years that remain of the ham-handed governor’s term.
The Recall Gavin 2020 campaign has been given a 120-day extension to collect the 1,500,000 signatures to force a special election.
Some of the state’s media, which usually join in California’s holy ritual of food fetishization, have had fun skewering the governor, who uttered an unappetizing apology when the photos from a diner’s cell phone, across the cozy room, revealed the governor’s haute cuisine hypocrisy to KTTV-TV, the Los Angeles Fox station.
The Onion even went so far as to claim that San Francisco chef Dominique Crenn’s popular three-starred Michelin Atelier Crenn “offers a clearly superior take on contemporary cuisine.”
The owner of the cell phone that snapped the shots of Gov. Newsom eating shoulder to shoulder, sans mask, inside (not outside, as he claimed) is still unknown. It’s assumed that the owner is not a Judas, but a Republican, who was aware of the governor’s recent edict that fellow Californians skip Thanksgiving , or, at least, wear a mask between bites of turkey. She might even be a parent who is having to home school her children, while the governor sends his children to a posh private school and would like nothing better than for Gov. Newsom to be crucified in the press, or at least to get his just desserts à la Marie Antoinette.
Calla Jones Corner
The author lives in Montecito.
