SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s easy to know where President Joe Biden plans to be Thursday night. His schedule says he’s hosting a showing of the movie “Till” in the White House East Room.
Biden’s schedule is sent to the media daily. Just like the schedules of members of Congress and lots of other governors.
But not California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Newsom’s GOP sparring partner, listed five events before noon last Friday — though they were all finished by the time the Miami Herald received notice in the late afternoon — and then a 12:30 p.m. “staff and call time.” On that same day, new Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders advised she’d speak at the state’s Lonoke Business Academy at 10 a.m.
In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore advised Monday night that he’d be making four public appearances Tuesday.
Now try figuring out what Newsom is doing. Or was doing. Or will do. The last schedule listing on his “media advisory” website was Jan. 31. He visited Washington, D.C., for at least two days last week, but never disclosed his whereabouts in advance.
When asked to provide details of his D.C. trip to The Sacramento Bee, his staff forwarded an email sent “to a few reporter inquiries on Friday.”
He spent last Thursday “with his fellow governors, attending multiple governors’ associations meetings in which they discussed ways to collaborate on innovative ideas and heard from key experts and national leaders on issues important to Californians,” according to his office. A recap of his D.C. visit was posted on the Office of the Governor’s website Sunday.
A detailed schedule of events was not provided to the press beforehand because “a lot of those meetings were being nailed down at the time (in D.C.),” said Daniel Villaseñor, deputy press secretary. Many meetings and events were also going to be closed to the media.
“It was more a function of figuring out what we could share depending on the folks he was meeting with,” said Villaseñor. “We were figuring out logistically what we could share ahead of time.”
Where’s the governor?
Public schedules for major office-holders are a difficult undertaking. The media and public want them to be accountable and transparent, but there are also potentially huge security risks in doing so.
As a result, many officeholders limit what they publicize, and have tight security when they do appear in public.
“It’s a balancing act between security concerns and keeping citizens and the press informed of what you’re doing,” said Steven Maviglio, Democratic consultant and former communications director for California Gov. Gray Davis.
Last week, Newsom traveled to Washington, where the nation’s governors were holding their winter meeting.
He did not attend the most public events. Newsom was absent at the Democratic governors’ news conference Thursday, the governors’ meeting with Biden Friday, the forums during the day Saturday and the formal White House dinner Saturday night.
There was no notice in advance of exactly what he was doing in Washington. All of the governors’ meetings and Capitol and White House events had very tight security.
Newsom was in D.C. Wednesday. On Thursday, his staff announced that the previous day, the governor “started his day in Washington, D.C. meeting with senior Biden administration officials on a host of issues important to California and offered to amplify and support the Biden administration’s agenda laid out in the State of the Union Address the night before.”
Newsom met that day with White House officials and senior members of the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss homelessness.
He provided no further information. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., who was at the meeting, told reporters that the participants discussed additional funding for Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program, to help the homeless and deal with mental health crises in California.
Currently, states cannot use Medicaid money for care provided in “institutions for mental disease,” psychiatric hospitals, or other residential treatment facilities that have more than 16 beds.
Padilla called the policy a “major barrier” to dealing with homeless people.
At some point Wednesday, Newsom visited former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the new House Democratic Caucus chairman; Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif.; and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Reporters who work the Capitol, including two from the Bee, routinely wait outside such meetings to interview those involved. Participants are usually willing to talk.
But there were no such stakeouts — because Newsom didn’t tell the media he was there. Padilla tweeted a picture of their meeting, which Newsom retweeted. The governor also tweeted a picture of himself with Aguilar saying, “Great to see you!”
“Newsom has certainly been much cagier with the Sacramento press corps than any governor in recent history,” Maviglio said, citing to Newsom’s lack of regular press briefings at the Capitol.
“He prefers to do events and appearances that he can manage ... but it’s difficult to question that strategy with a 60% approval rating and landslide (reelection) victory.”
Newsom in Washington
It’s not known what Newsom was doing Thursday. He tweeted how the Democratic Governors Association had named him policy chairman, but offered no details.
On Friday, the nation’s governors met with Biden. This is usually a once-a-year event when they can lobby for different causes, as the president prepares his upcoming annual budget, which he is expected to unveil next month. Newsom did not attend.
Governors, legislatures and presidents tend to publicize their public events, and often privately keep the media informed of their whereabouts.
The White House issues public schedules for Biden each evening for the next day, including weekends, and provides a “week ahead” schedule as well. The advisories do not include all events.
Last weekend, for instance, the press release said, “On Saturday, the President and the First Lady will welcome Governors and their spouses for a black-tie dinner at the White House. The Vice President and the Second Gentleman will attend. “ Later, it specified the time the event would begin.
Congress makes its detailed committee schedules available days in advance on its House and Senate websites.
In other states, governors offer similar guidance. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin listed three events Friday. A 7:30 a.m. breakfast with Virginia House and Senate leaders was closed to the press, as was a 1:30 p.m. visit to a Memorial to the Enslaved at William and Mary College.
But 2 p.m. remarks at Williamsburg’s Bray School, believed to be the oldest existing building that once was a school for enslaved Black children, were open.
Arkansas’ Sanders sent out a notice Tuesday that the next morning at 10 a.m., she plans “an announcement with Secretary of Human Services Kristi Putnam” at the state Capitol in Little Rock.
In Washington, nine different Senate committees advised on the Senate’s website they plan hearings on a variety of subjects Wednesday, including the economy and climate change, the fentanyl crisis and “global security challenges and strategy.”
Biden Wednesday went to Lanham, Maryland, where he spoke to union members about “progress we are making building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”
Newsom did not announce a Wednesday schedule. Or a Thursday schedule. Or any schedule.
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