WASHINGTON — Now that he’s a congressman with a national megaphone, Rep. Kevin Kiley’s eager to describe over and over how he sees Gov. Gavin Newsom ruining California.
Four days after taking office, the Republican vowed on his blog: “I will continue to do everything I can to expose Newsom’s failures, using all the new tools at my disposal to hold him accountable. Our movement for sanity in California will continue to grow.”
Asked by The Sacramento Bee to describe the new tools he could use to battle Newsom, a Democrat, from a continent away, Kiley cited his ability to talk to a wider audience, ask tough questions at hearings and help write legislation.
“There’s simply the platform of being able to communicate on the national level about how things have been going in California,” he said.
Being a congressman involves balancing concern and getting help for constituents while working to shape federal policy so it benefits both the country and the member’s district.
In his first weeks in office, Kiley has spent much of his time traveling through his district, seeking help for storm victims.
At the same time Kiley has:
— Spoken on the House floor against how California has handled water policy. “California now finds itself in a drought emergency and a flood emergency at the same time,” he said “That absurdity underscores a fundamental failure of governance.”
— Criticized Newsom on Twitter, warning “My arrival in Congress is not going to make Gavin Newsom’s life easier. Quite the contrary.”
— Appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show, saying Newsom “declared California is the true freedom state. You’d think this is a parody if you didn’t know better.”
— Reminded constituents he’s still fighting. “As for Newsom, accountability is on the way,” he said in a blog post last week.
Analysts said that Kiley needs to concentrate on making the transition from state assemblyman to congressman.
“He needs to switch his brain from Republican opposition in California” to helping the party’s loftier goals, said Wesley Hussey, professor of political science at California State University, Sacramento.
“If they’re trying to focus on (President Joe) Biden, why are you talking about a guy who may or may not be running for president?” Hussey asked. Newsom has been the subject of speculation that he could eventually seek the presidency.
Kiley’s emphasis on Newsom and California policy is “a little surprising but it might be how they mobilize the core,” said Christian Grose, academic director of the University of Southern California’s Schwarzenegger Institute.
Kiley is a member of the House Judiciary and the Education and Workforce Committees, giving him a very visible opportunity to ask Biden administration, and perhaps California state and local officials, about how responsibly they used federal money from recent COVID-related legislation.
“When you look at the money that came to the state through COVID, all these slush funds that were essentially created. We need to get answers. How did that money go towards Californians?” Kiley asked. “Was it allocated in the best way possible? Was it wasted? Was it used in line with what Congress intended?”
Newsom tends to think only of his political needs, Kiley said. ”I know from having observed him in my time in the legislature that when he gets his hands on a pot of money the first question of him and his political team isn’t, ‘How can I benefit Californians?’ It’s how are we gonna benefit Newsom?”
Newsom’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
At the core of all this is Kiley’s ongoing disdain for all things Newsom. As an assemblyman, he helped lead the ultimately unsuccessful 2021 effort to recall the governor, and hasn’t relented in his criticism.
Kiley’s main point is that Newsom has presided over a state where the quality of life has eroded badly.
“Newsom seems to believe he’s created a template that ought to be followed by Congress, by the White House and by other states. So I want to advance the office inside of that argument and show nothing is farther from the truth,” Kiley said.
“I would say we need to make sure that everyone is aware of the truth of what’s happened in California. The governor is putting out propaganda. It bears zero resemblance to reality. We need to make sure that does not go unanswered.”
Kiley offered specifics in his talk with The Bee, citing Newsom is trying to restrict Californians’ freedom.
He cited policies aimed at cleaning up the environment, such as the ban on gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers, as well as the ban on selling new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. He also criticized the law barring restaurants from offering patrons plastic straws, condiment packets and “single-use” utensils unless requested.
“This is a state where we wake up every day asking, ‘What is the government going to take from me today?'” Kiley asked Ingraham.
Kiley pointed in The Bee interview to California’s issues with homelessness and crime. He finds taxes too high, too much government intrusion into how people live, and problems with COVID-driven education policies that he says were too restrictive.
“Why is it California had the slowest reopening of any state in the country?” he asked. “Gavin Newsom shut them out of school for a long long time. All the while he sent his own kids to in-person private schools. I think these are issues that bear scrutiny.”
California was one of the slowest states to provide in-person learning as the pandemic eased, the federal Department of Education reported in 2021.
Newsom’s children returned to in-person private school in October 2020. At the time, many of the state’s public school systems, including most of those in Sacramento County, where Newsom lives, were operating remotely.
So if Newsom is such a miserable governor, Kiley was asked, why did he easily defeat the recall effort and, 14 months later, get reelected overwhelmingly?
“He really wasn’t reelected by a really big margin. It was one of the lowest margins I think we’ve had in quite a while,” Kiley said.
“He’s running in what’s considered a very blue state. He did worse than let’s say Ron DeSantis in running in Florida in what’s like a swing state,” Kiley maintained.
DeSantis won reelection last year with 59.4%. Newsom won reelection with 57.9% of the vote. He won with 62% in 2018.
In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, got 60% and in 2010, 54%. The last Republican to win a statewide office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, got 56% in his 2006 reelection bid.
Kiley is undeterred.
“Even for people who voted for the governor, they may have voted for him for one reason or another and they may have agreed with him on some issues and not agreed with him on another,” he figured.
“I would say we need to make sure that everyone is aware of the truth of what’s happened in California,” he said. “The governor is putting out propaganda. It bears zero resemblance to reality. We need to make sure that does not go unanswered.”
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