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Comment by dimator | Hacker News Reader

I was really disappointed in Newsom going to that dinner. I don't understand how no one pointed out the optics to him beforehand. The fact that it was a lobbyists birthday is even worse. There will definitely be attack ads around this next cycle, that's for certain.

And aside from politics, his bad example will definitely influence people who were on the fence about Thanksgiving gatherings. A human toll, for such a frivolous action.

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Newsom didn’t really strike me as a strong candidate or Governor. He seems to do the least possible thing required of the office, and in this incident, even less than that. I’m not sure how progressive CA elects centrists like him, Feinstein and Pelosi (although Pelosi is to her credit very savvy politically).

I personally favored Villaraigosa because I lived in San Francisco throughout Newsom's terms on the city council and as mayor, and I view him as a petty self-dealer with no policy ambitions other than his own election. On the other hand, people from L.A. told me the same things about Villaraigosa, and in any case he failed to even beat Cox to get on the general ballot so the point was moot.

I don't know why anyone would be disappointed by Newsom going to dinner with some lobbyists, unless they had simply adopted a default-neutral view of the man. Newsom only knows lobbyists.

I lived in San Francisco through Newsom’s terms as supervisor and mayor, and heard about Villaraigosa, too. My choice was Delaine Eastin.

Not just any lobbyist, but a fossil fuel lobbyist.

He even dragged the CEO and a SVP of the California Medical Association to the dinner.

Along with his veto of SB-127 (2019), Newsom’s just killing people left and right through casual neglect.

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