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California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 14
Photo:
Dai Sugano/Associated Press
California Gov.
Gavin Newsom
wants to debate Florida Gov.
Ron DeSantis,
even as both are running for re-election in their own states. The challenge is a political stunt by Mr. Newsom, but there’s still a lot to recommend it.
“Hey @GovRonDeSantis,” Mr. Newsom wrote Friday on
Twitter,
“clearly you’re struggling, distracted, and busy playing politics with people’s lives. Since you have only one overriding need—attention—let’s take this up & debate.”
Mr. Newsom is running for re-election in a one-party state and is expected to win easily against his GOP opponent. Mr. Newsom has plenty of time for distractions as he plots his run for President in 2024 if President Biden decides not to run.
Mr. DeSantis, on the other hand, is running in a far more competitive state, where statewide elections always seem to be close. He won by only 32,463 votes in 2018, and
Charlie Crist,
his Democratic challenger this year, isn’t far behind in the polls. We can understand if Mr. DeSantis prefers to focus on his own re-election, rather than giving the California Democrat a national forum for his presidential ambitions.
Yet a debate, or better more than one, would also showcase Mr. DeSantis in a way that rarely happens through the state or national liberal media filter. Every move he makes is criticized in the national press, and Democrats are calling him “scarier” than
Donald Trump
even before the November election. That’s even faster than we figured.
Debates would give Mr. DeSantis a chance to explain his policies on Covid, the economy, school choice, immigration and more. Immersed as he is in the Sacramento-mainstream-media bubble, Mr. Newsom might think Mr. DeSantis is an easy mark.
A debate would let voters see the difference between the California and Florida models of governance. Mr. DeSantis gave a fine speech the other day on the “great American exodus” to states like Florida from progressive states. Even if not this fall, this is a debate the country eventually needs to hear.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the September 19, 2022, print edition.
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