The California Exodus

For the first time in state history, we lost a seat in Congress this week. If the California Exodus is a myth, apparently the Census Bureau is in on it.

California actually would have lost two seats if Gavin Newsom and the Legislature hadn’t spent $182 million to juice the Census headcount. Florida and Texas, meanwhile, gained several seats.

California’s loss reflects population changes from the last full decade. But much of the damage was done by Newsom himself the last two years. His own Administration reports 136,000 more people moved out than moved in during just one of those years.

Overall, a staggering 53 percent of residents say they’re contemplating a departure. California was once a place where anyone could get ahead; it’s now a place many can’t wait to leave behind. Our state’s inherent beauty and countless wonders, our population’s peerless aptitude and esprits de corps, have been overwhelmed by the failure of our politics.

The Recall is a chance to fix our politics. I believe a political realignment in California is not only possible but long overdue. We got a glimpse of the current misalignment last November, when voters rebuked the Legislature and Special Interests on seven different Propositions.

And yesterday, a new PPIC poll showed that 68 percent of Californians identify as conservative or middle-of-the-road. The number of conservatives and liberals in the state is about equal.

Newsom is well aware of all this. That’s why the only play in his anti-Recall playbook is scorched earth attacks – often against reality itself. (PolitiFact’s last two fact checks, incidentally, are of me and Newsom.) His spokesman even dismissed the Exodus as “people with political axes to grind who want to put the hate on California.”

Actually, I love California, and I’m sure you do as well. What we hate is that it’s being ruined by a corrupt government, one that has now corrupted absolutely.

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