Newsom Beat the Recall, Now Comes the Hard Part: Governing California

SACRAMENTO — For astir a twelvemonth — portion a pandemic raged, portion wildfires roared, portion fume smothered the once-pristine bluish skies implicit Lake Tahoe — Gov. Gavin Newsom has had to simultaneously govern the nation’s astir populous authorities and bushed backmost an attempted recall.

On Wednesday, helium emerged victorious — but inactive had aggregate crises to confront. Ninety percent of the state was successful utmost drought. The median location terms had eclipsed $800,000. Some 100,000 radical were sleeping extracurricular oregon successful their cars nightly. And much than 6 cardinal nationalist schoolhouse children were struggling to marque up the learning they had missed due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of bills connected his table waited to beryllium signed, including 1 to let duplexes successful single-family neighborhoods crossed California and different enshrining the vote-by-mail rules that helped support him successful office.

But what the politician tin bash with that mandate is unclear. The callback run was agelong and divisive, governmental experts say, and the state’s problems progressively defy elemental solutions. Many much straightforward challenges were met past twelvemonth with a monolithic authorities surplus and a flood of pandemic assistance from the Biden administration.

Now — though Mr. Newsom has the vantage of a unified base, a Democratic supermajority successful the Legislature and the state’s attraction — what remains are issues that necessitate acold much than money.

“These are problems that instrumentality time,” said Jerry Brown, who governed the authorities for 2 eight-year stints successful the 1970s and again from 2010 to 2018. “Reducing c emissions. Reversing the gross inequalities. Being capable to support the transgression complaint down. Dealing with truthful galore radical who person who person truthful small that their lives and families are disintegrating.”

The recall, Mr. Brown said, was “sound and fury signifying precise little” — an “expensive blip” that successful a mates of weeks “will beryllium not overmuch much than a footnote.” But, helium said, “it’s down present to the breadstuff and food issues. And they’re the aforesaid aged issues that person been astir for a agelong clip successful modern California.”

But but for his coronavirus policies, which person been pointed to arsenic a imaginable nationalist model, the politician mostly avoided making his docket portion of the callback discussion. Aiming to animate the state’s Democratic basal successful an off-year peculiar election, helium portrayed the callback arsenic a conflict to rescue the nation’s biggest bluish authorities from hard close extremists, and arsenic portion of a larger, nationalist warfare connected the divisiveness of erstwhile President Donald J. Trump and the Republicans who respect him.

Outside a triumph enactment afterward, helium acknowledged the challenges that await him, but resisted overmuch elaboration.

“Let the particulate settle,” helium said.

At slightest portion of the calculus volition see adjacent year’s regularly scheduled gubernatorial election. Although the politician is improbable to look overmuch meaningful opposition, 2022 is simply a regular predetermination twelvemonth — a clip erstwhile arguable authorities tends to beryllium acceptable aside.

“It volition beryllium absorbing to spot what helium wants to absorption on,” said Toni Atkins, the president pro tempore of the California Senate, noting that overmuch of the Legislature besides volition beryllium campaigning. The dominance of Democrats successful the State Senate and Assembly masks an often unwieldy scope of views — Bay Area progressives, Central Valley moderates, coastal environmentalists, jobs-first pragmatists.

The situation was evident adjacent wrong the county-by-county callback tallies, with immense majorities for the politician successful Democratic strongholds specified arsenic Los Angeles and the Bay Area, thinner margins successful San Diego and Orange County and overmuch of the acold agrarian northbound voting to regenerate him.

Legislation of singular expanse softly passed this year, adjacent arsenic the callback consumed the public’s attention, Ms. Atkins said: preschool for each of the state’s 4-year-olds, stimulus checks for low- and middle-income people, wellness security for undocumented immigrants 50 and older.

But clime bills stalled, casualties successful galore cases of the divided betwixt parts of the authorities that prioritize jobs and parts that prioritize enactment connected clime change.

She predicted the politician would resume enactment connected priorities helium had held from the commencement of his administration, including affordable lodging and aboriginal puerility education. But, she added, his triumph has whetted legislative ambitions, too.

The fifth-largest system successful the satellite and location to immoderate 40 cardinal people, California is known some for its bounty and for its epic flaws. It leads the federation successful billionaires; erstwhile lodging is factored in, it besides has America’s highest poorness level.

Its coastline is renowned, but towering wildfires, burning implicit arsenic overmuch arsenic a cardinal acres, person go a terrifying yearly occurrence. A mega-drought has sent the terms of cultivation h2o soaring and tens of thousands of farms are connected reduced h2o rations.

One hurdle successful carrying retired ambitious argumentation objectives, experts said, was a governmental acquisition that emerged from the recall: Polarization pays.

Partisan rhetoric mobilized voters connected some sides, handing Mr. Newsom his triumph and raising the illustration of an different withering Republican Party. Any radical that, successful the past, mightiness person been daunted by the situation of launching a statewide callback learned that adjacent a mislaid origin tin disrupt an hostile for months, Mark Baldassare, president of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, said.

But that isn’t needfully conducive to governance, helium added.

“This callback predetermination has conscionable truly stirred the pot,” said Mr. Baldassare. “Will radical find communal ground? It’s going to beryllium hard.”

Fernando Guerra, a prof and the manager of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles astatine Loyola Marymount University, said the politician has each instrumentality astatine his disposal to instrumentality bold enactment if helium wants to — a supportive White House, a legislative supermajority, a authorities surplus and billions of national dollars successful pandemic aid. Leveraging those advantages could permission a bequest to rival the state’s astir iconic governors, helium said, including Jerry Brown and his father, who governed successful the 1960s, Edmund G. “Pat” Brown.

“California volition beryllium positioned to person the astir bonzer 2 oregon 3 years of authorities and state-led innovation since the Pat Brown epoch — oregon California could beryllium mired successful governmental paralysis and doomed to incremental decline. And it volition each beryllium connected Gavin Newsom,” helium said.

“If crises are opportunities, past this is the top accidental immoderate sitting politician successful America volition ever have.”

Thomas Fuller contributed reporting from Sacramento.