While it is difficult to say what will happen in the 2024 election, there are signs that California Governor Gavin Newsom intends to be a candidate in the 2028 cycle.
The omens are clear by looking at some of his recent executive decisions.
To begin with, he wants to count all the votes, whether legitimate or not. Newsom just signed a new law prohibiting local governments from enacting or enforcing a requirement that a person show identification when voting.
The legislation — from state Sen. Dave Min, an Orange County Democrat running for Rep. Katie Porter’s open House seat — is a direct response to a controversial ballot measure approved this year by voters in Huntington Beach requiring people to show photo identification at the polls. It will take effect on Jan. 1….Min’s legislation is one of nearly a half-dozen bills introduced by Democratic state lawmakers this past year looking to close legal gray areas in state election laws. The changes aim to prevent Huntington Beach, Shasta County and other conservative local governments from establishing election policies that are often driven by suspicions of voter fraud.Legislation from state Sen. Steve Bradford, signed into law Wednesday, clarifies record-keeping procedures for secure elections data and increases the secretary of state’s regulatory power over poll books and other voting systems used in local elections.
On the other hand, Newsom vetoed a measure requiring warning labels on gas stoves that was widely mocked. Thanks to Newsom’s pen, it has now gone down in flames for now.
Newsom vetoed Assemblymember Gail Pellerin’s AB 2513, which would have required warning labels on natural gas stoves sold online to Californians starting next year and in stores starting in 2026.He said the bill would have been overly prescriptive. “This static approach falls short in enabling timely updates to the labeling content that should align with the latest scientific knowledge so that consumers are accurately informed about their purchases,” he said in a veto message.The bill is one of the embers of a national political conflagration that flared up over natural gas stoves last year and mostly died out early this year. The warning label proposal was tried in New York and Illinois along with California.
This will reduce some mockery that will likely be directed at very progressive policy choices, though certainly not eliminate it.
Finally, running for POTUS may be difficult without the support of a large swath of Big Tech. He just gave the thumbs down to a measure unpopular with that group. Newsom vetoed a controversial bill to create safety measures for large artificial intelligence (AI) models, which would have been the nation’s first law.
Despite making noises, he was all-in for such measures previously.
The governor’s veto delivers a major setback to attempts to create guardrails around AI and its rapid evolution with little oversight, according to The Associated Press. The legislation faced staunch opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic lawmakers.Newsom said earlier this month at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI as the federal government has failed to put safety measures in place, but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.”S.B. 1047, the governor said, could have hurt the homegrown industry by setting up strict requirements.”While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Newsom said in a statement. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.”Newsom announced instead that the state will partner with several industry experts to develop safety measures for powerful AI models.
I am sure that by “partnering,” Newsom means making political donations and giving politically connected personnel appropriate positions of power and influence over this potentially powerful tool.
While I am looking forward to the end of this presidential election cycle, I think my joy will be short-lived as the next one will start shortly afterward.
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