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a recall election looming for california
governor gavin newsom
high taxes cost of living and mass
exodus all pose a threat to the future
of the golden state
and despite signs of a return to
normalcy california's economy
is still struggling to dig itself out of
the pandemic hole
conor mcshane is in semi valley with the
story connell
hey there brian you know it's a long way
to go to get california's economy back
on its feet it's been such a long road
here the state will
finally reopen fully on the 15th of june
but as you said the governor
gavin newsom still faces this recall
later in the year it is a deep blue
state of course
so we thought it would be interesting to
check in with the former mayor of los
angeles antonio villaraigosa
get his perspective since he's a
democrat on how the lockdowns have been
handled in california over this last
year and a half the republicans were
you know didn't follow the science when
it came to covet
climate change or evolution and then on
the other side the democrats sometimes
invented the science and or hid behind
it in the beginning
everything was so uncertain and
obviously
we had to go almost blindly
with the epidemiologists the scientists
uh
and the like but after a while uh you
know after a few months
it felt like sometimes we were inventing
the science and went too far in terms of
locking down the state
with respect to california my
my concern was closing down the schools
for as long as we have
this is a state that has closed down the
schools uh
virtually longer than any other state in
the country and the same is true with
the schools here in los angeles even
worse than any big city in the country
there's no question about that outdoor
dining i've said from the beginning
you know there was no there was no
evidence that
outdoor dining was a cause or a major
cause
of the spread of coveton and
the businesses that are involved here
mostly small businesses
and disproportionately low-wage workers
right so we put it on
uh you know the least among us if you
will we talked to a number of those
small business owners and some of them
have described the current governor
gavin newsom as being anti-business do
you think that's fair
you know look i i think too many people
engage in the blame game
i i i've not been one of them what i
have said was
i i don't agree uh with closing the
schools for as long as we have
i don't agree the science isn't there
and the same was true with outdoor
dining there's no question
uh that after a while um it became
absolutely clear that what we were doing
was
uh disproportionately hurting low-wage
workers and small businesses
now virgoso was the speaker in the state
assembly years ago he served two terms
as the mayor at la and he's already
run for governor once so i did ask about
the current governor gavin newsom and
whether
he's the right guy to be on the job
right now
look uh he's the man in the job and we
you know i
i've never been as i said someone who
puts blame
uh on uh the governor or anyone else
what i want to do
is make sure that we're working together
to get the economy moving again
what i will say is i do think it is
important for us to pride
to continue to provide stimulus
particularly
for those who are the least among
us who had disproportionately been
impacted not exactly mr mayor all due
respect a ringing endorsement
for the current governor i'd have to say
you know
as part of our conversation you've run
for governor before i have to ask you if
there's any chance that
you're thinking about running for
governor again you know
i think uh during covet uh
it's the wrong time to be talking about
politics i think we need to talk about
get the economy moving again
and getting people back to work and in
that
vein i do support efforts on the part of
the governor and the state
to do everything we can to do that have
you ruled out appearing on the ballot
this year i
i'm not thinking about recalls or
anything else
i'm only thinking about getting the
economy uh back to where it was
we expect that that will happen but we
got to make sure that people
are back to work it's going to push you
a little bit that's something as much as
you want
50 50 or maybe 40 or 50 what it sounds
like is
uh you know i'm not focused on the
recall right now
well i didn't obviously rule out a run
and as you heard there didn't commit to
running either it'd be interesting if he
got in the race but the fact is brian
even with all the issues
that this state has and we've reported
on them extensively an incumbent
democrat in deep blue california like
avendus and we'll still
most political insiders tell you'd be
tough to beat in
this state so you know we'll see what
happens whether someone like viagosa
gets in the race
but it'd be a tough road for a democrat
to take on newsome even after all he's
been through
you pushed him well on that question
connell nice work thanks so much
colin mcshane in california