The fact that Gavin Newsom has Xavier Becerra backing his policy is telling you exactly what they bank on. Not the record. The bureaucracy. That's what selects them.
Because look at his record. It's obviously a mess.
They don't need the results to hold up. They need the people inside the system to keep choosing them. That's the whole play. When your record can't win the argument, you borrow credibility from the machine — the former Biden HHS secretary, the institutional seal of approval — and hope nobody checks the receipts.
Becerra, who ran the Department of Health and Human Services under Joe Biden, is now lending his name to Newsom's agenda. It's the classic move: the record is indefensible, so you change the subject to who's standing next to you.
But voters can see the state Newsom actually runs. The bureaucracy can applaud all it wants — the record is still the record.