In summary

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin exhorted conservative donors at a Koch Network gathering earlier this week to donate to Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, and called Democrat Gavin Newsom a “dirtbag,” a “joke” and an “embarrassment to public service.”

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin exhorted conservative donors at a Koch Network gathering earlier this week to donate to Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, and called Democrat Gavin Newsom a “dirtbag,” a “joke” and an “embarrassment to public service,” NBC News reported.

Newsom spokesman Dan Newman: “We have no comment whatsoever about anyone who blames ‘all sides’ for Nazi violence, slashes healthcare, attacks teachers, and is shocked to learn that African Americans are smart enough to play chess.”

The chess reference stemmed from a report in the Louisville Courier Journal  that Bevins visited a poor part of town last month, and said:

“I’m going to go in and meet the members of the West Louisville Chess Club. Not something you necessarily would have thought of when you think of this section of town.”

Cox’s consultant Wayne Johnson said the focus of Cox’s campaign “has been less about Gavin and more about the millions of Californians who are in serious economic peril.” Cox was not at the Koch confab.

No word on whether Bevin’s pitch inspired billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch and the other rich people who were in Colorado Springs to open their wallets.

This story originally appeared in WhatMatters, our daily roundup of the most important policy and politics news in California. Subscribe here.

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Dan Morain joined CalMatters in March 2018. He is the former editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee. Morain also spent 27 years at The Los Angeles Times, and has covered the Capitol since 1992.