Gavin Newsom’s Vanity is Costing California Taxpayers $2.6 Million Annually

Last month, the Globe reported on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “state funded news” – Assembly Bill 2222 offers tax incentives to local news outlets that hire qualifying journalists in California. It is state funded news, meant to report favorably on the governor.

We noted that a free press is supposed to be independent of the government it covers.

As egregious is the governor’s official communications team, which has doubled in size since 2020 – “even as he rarely takes questions from the media in Sacramento and his agencies shun interview requests.” 

A CalMatters investigation published this week found that the governor’s office now has 24 taxpayer-funded employees on its official communications/press team, collectively paid at least $2.6 million a year.

That is up from 12 communications staff members in January 2020, a year into his first term.

Newsom’s comms team includes spokespeople, writers, researchers, a full-time,  $200,000+-per-year photographer. The team is focused on “visual messaging, public perception and narrative development.”  

The four-person Gen Z digital content group produce social media posts and memes, and includes Brandon Richards (He/Him) in the “rapid-response” unit.

“The only other governor with a comparable communications staff was Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an international media sensation whose office credentialed 400 reporters in his first term and held weekly press briefings, said former spokesperson Margita Thompson,” Calmatters reports. “Today during one of Newsom’s rare Sacramento press conferences, between 10 and 20 reporters regularly attend. The office stopped issuing its own press credentials years ago.”

My last Governor’s press credential was during the pandemic.

Gov. Jerry Brown ran one of the smallest and leanest press/communications operations in modern California history, especially compared with  Schwarzenegger and Gavin Newsom.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s communications operation peaked at about 17 staffers across separate press and communications offices. Brown’s initial setup was just three: Press Secretary Gil Duran plus two deputies, supplemented by up to three interns and a fellow. Brown’s press office “had eight staffers at its height—including interns” and borrowed photographers from other agencies when needed. It remained far leaner than the broader governor’s office under predecessors.

Notably, Schwarzenegger was one of the most accessible governors, frequently opening up his conference room to reporters, seated in a circle around the room, as the governor took rapid-fire questions until they were all answered. 

Much of the expansion and the shift toward Newsom’s around-the-clock content operation (social posts, livestreams, podcasts, Substack) occurred in the second term, commensurately with his presidential ambitions.

Organizational charts from late 2023 already showed a sizable communications section, consistent with steady expansion.

It is notable that the expansion of Newsom’s communication staff coincides with his reduced availability to the Sacramento press corps, favoring more social media public messaging.

The broader governor’s office itself has also grown substantially under Newsom.

Where is hair and makeup?

As Calmatters notes, Newsom’s office tells conservative writers they are not “real journalists.”

“The social media posts range from routine policy announcements to AI-generated memes boosting Newsom and sexualized taunts at Republicans. The account frequently engages in fights with the right, scorning them for their alignment with Trump, who is widely unpopular in California.”

Rob Schmitt from Newsmax: “You know you guys are gonna have to explain for all these blatantly homophobic jokes during the primary right?”

Podcaster Gunther Eagleman: “LOL! You just lost voters with this post! Please keep posting stupid shit like this.”

Buzz Patterson: “Gavin Newsom used to be mayor of the gayest city in America. Now, his team is hurling homophobic slurs.”

Bx: “Why does Grindr have your phone number though?”