Dem
51
GOP
49
It took more than 2 weeks, but Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has scored a victory. The ballot initiative that he championed, which is meant to try to address California's problem with homelessness, has been approved by voters.
The reason it took so long for the result is that it was necessary to wait for every mail-in ballot to arrive and be counted because the final tally was very close. In the end, 3,603,999 voters (50.2%) supported the measure while 3,575,162 (49.8%) opposed it. That's a margin of less than 29,000 votes in a state with 35 million people. It doesn't get much more "skin of your teeth" than that.
So, is this a victory for Newsom, the aspiring presidential candidate? Presumably, since it did get passed, and since it will allow him to say that he took "action" in response to the #1 issue of California voters. Given how much political capital he invested (appearing in seemingly infinite commercials in favor of the proposition), it clearly would not have passed without his support. So, he can claim a lot of credit. All the credit, really.
On the other hand, despite investing all that time and energy, the initiative barely made it. And a big reason for that is that California has already thrown gobs of money at this problem, without a lot of return on investment. This being the case, a lot of voters were rather skeptical about spending even more. And the odds are high that, in 2-3 years, homelessness will still be the state's #1 concern. So, Newsom can run for president saying "See? I did something about the homeless issue!" and his opponents can answer "But did you, really?" (Z)