January 7, 2019

Governors and California's independently elected lieutenant governors “don’t always see eye to eye,” Gov. Gavin Newsom noted as he prepared to swear in the new lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis. “That’s about to change,” Newsom said. Exactly what duties Newsom might cede to Kounalakis remain to determined. There was no promise. But Kounalakis promises to make an impact.

It’s been a while since California had a governor who is also a dad, and Gavin Newsom has made clear that his new job will be informed by his role at home.

Gavin Newsom was inaugurated on the western steps of the capitol building this morning, closing out the Brown era of California politics and pointing towards a new, more assertively progressive politics out of Sacramento. This is what he said.

Tony Thurmond, who spent a childhood in the sort of poverty that mirrors the lives of many California school children, was sworn in on Monday as state superintendent of public instruction, becoming the second African American to hold the office. He will oversee the California Department of Education as the top education administrator in a state where majority of students come from low-income households.

The good and bad news about Gov. Newsom's new job, what Newsom's advisors say about the economy, Jerry Brown stories and what mattered Jan. 7, 1919.

On Jan. 7, 1919, Gov. William Stephens gave his inaugural speech, as Newsom will 100 years later, to the day. Many of the words he used to set the tone of his governorship echo to this day.

Jerry Brown tends to shun responsibility for problems in state government and he's leaving behind a doozy for successor Gavin Newsom - a managerial mess in the Department of Motor Vehicles.