Government unions show Newsom who’s really in charge of California

Published July 18, 2025 12:01am ET



Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is incapable of getting his employees to show up to the office more than two days a week. This is an indictment of his leadership and reveals a flaw that should be fatal to his presidential aspirations. It is also an indictment of the California Democratic Party, which has shown itself to be a wholly owned subsidiary of powerful government unions.

This March, just weeks before the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office projected current and “persistent” deficits of between $10 billion and $20 billion a year, Newsom issued an executive order directing all agency heads to update telework policies to require staff to be in their offices four days a week rather than two days, as is now the case. Agency heads were given three months to get this done, with an implementation deadline of July 1.

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