Six ways Gavin Newsom will have to defend California in debate against Ron DeSantis

Imagine if the country became as much of a mess as California, says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

That’s the sort of broadside likely to be coming Gov. Gavin Newsom’s way Thursday night as he engages DeSantis in a 90-minute debate on Fox News Channel.

They’re primed to fight over which state is safer, has better schools, deals most effectively with immigrants, offers residents more personal freedom and has a lower cost of living.

The California governor, DeSantis told “Fox and Friends” last week, has caused “a mass exodus out of the state. You’ve really seen cities collapse there. That is what he would want to do for this entire country. And it would accelerate the collapse we’ve seen under Joe Biden. So, the stakes are really high for America.”

DeSantis, 45, a Republican candidate for president, also has been saying that Newsom is eyeing a 2024 campaign for the White House. Newsom, 56, has been a strong Biden supporter and repeatedly said he’s not interested in running next year.

But this debate showcases two big-state governors who are likely to be important players for years to come. Both have taken the steps that presidential candidates — both declared and wishful — historically take: Raise lots of money, win big in their big states and court national attention.

Newsom vs. DeSantis

Here are some of the issues likely to come up Thursday:

▪ Crime. It’s hard to discern which state wins this argument.

California had nine firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, among the lowest rates in the nation. Florida had 14.1 per 100,000, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

WalletHub, a financial services firm, last month released a more comprehensive analysis of the safest states. It found both states ranked low. California was 36th and Florida was 46th.

However, California was 48th-lowest for personal and residential safety, while Florida was 35th. California ranked 47th in road safety; Florida was 46th.

▪ Immigration. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rockford, offered on his blog this week a series of questions Newsom could be asked. One involved immigration, a topic where Republicans have been blasting Newsom for his outreach to undocumented immigrants.

Kiley said Newsom has “championed” California as a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants and signed legislation providing them government health care coverage. Sanctuary jurisdictions tend to be those that don’t generally cooperate with federal immigration laws. Critics say they provide safe harbors, or sanctuaries, for undocumented immigrants.

It was actually Gov. Jerry Brown, Newsom’s predecessor, who signed into law legislation that created protection for undocumented immigrants living in the state. But federal immigration officials can still do their jobs, such as entering state and local prisons to check on someone’s status.

Newsom has taken steps to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s income-based health care program, to include many undocumented immigrants.

Medi-Cal has covered all eligible children regardless of immigration status since 2016. In 2019, after Newsom became governor, California became the first state to extend Medi-Cal coverage to all eligible young adults up to age 26

Last year, the state became the nation’s first to expand extensive Medi-Cal eligibility to lower income people over 50, regardless of immigration status.

▪ Homelessness. It’s vexed Newsom since his days as mayor of San Francisco. Any way it’s measured, the homeless population has been growing.

About 30% of the nation’s homeless were in California, according to the 2022 report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Between 2020 and 2022, the homeless population grew by 10,212, by far the most of any state.

The Newsom administration cites progress in dealing with the issue. Since July 1, 2021, it said California has cleared 5,679 encampments from the state right-of-way. According to the governor’s office, the state has spent a total of $750 million so far to help an estimated 23,000 people to get off the streets.

▪ Freedom. DeSantis touts Florida as a place where the government imposes few restrictions on individual rights, and often cites COVID-19 policies.

“People are flooding into Florida because we’ve stood for freedom and prosperity,” he told Fox last week.

Newsom likes to bash Florida for being too lax in dealing with COVID-19. When he announced a year ago that he would end the state of emergency, he compared California to Florida. “‘Lockdown’ states like California did better economically than ‘looser’ states like Florida,” he said, and provided data.

During the COVID-19 emergency that began in 2020, Newsom ordered lockdowns and stay-at-home policies that remained in effect far longer than those in Florida. Initially, COVID cases were up in Florida when restrictions were off.

Newsom’s office cited a Los Angeles Times analysis of Johns Hopkins University data showing that far more Florida residents died on a per capita basis during the COVID-19 emergency than Californians. A different study, though, pointed out that Florida’s population is older and tends to be less healthy.

▪ Cost of living. The typical budget for a two-parent, two-child family in Sacramento County is $7,689 per month, according to 2020 data from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The calculation addresses what it calls a “modest yet adequate standard of living.”

It breaks down like this (all figures are monthly): Housing: $1,451, Food: $832, Child care, $1,169, Transportation: $1,223, Health care: $1,370, Other necessities: $827 and taxes, $817..

It costs roughly the same to live in Florida’s Miami-Dade County. EPI estimates a family of four would need about $7,549.

The breakdown: Housing: $1,551, Food: $902, Child care, $1,200, Transportation, $1,070, Health care: $1,240, Other necessities: $889, and taxes, $698.

Florida is less expensive in two big consumer areas. Gasoline costs less in Florida. So, generally, does housing.

The typical home price in California during June was $760,526, according to the Motley Fool, a financial and investment advice company. Florida’s average was $407,219.

A gallon of regular gasoline cost $3.16 in Florida Wednesday. The same gallon would cost $4.86 in California, according to AAA.

▪ Education. Newsom has repeatedly condemned Florida’s efforts to restrict what students can read in public schools, as well as its conservative social policies.

“That’s what stands today for education reform, at least that seems to be the debate,” he said at a July speech in Washington.

He sent a letter to textbook publishers in May demanding to know whether they are obeying Florida’s command to remove passages about culturally sensitive subjects from publications.

“California will not be complicit in Florida’s attempt to whitewash history through laws and backroom deals,” Newsom wrote.

“Parents have a right to know what’s happening in the dark to undermine our children’s education — and California deserves to know whether any of these companies designing textbooks for our state’s classrooms are the same ones kowtowing to Florida’s extremist agenda,”

Newsom critics cite data showing examples of Florida schools often outperforming California schools.

The U.S. Department of Education Nation’s Report Card, found that last year California public school 4th graders’ reading performance was roughly at the national average. Florida’s score was somewhat higher than average.

Math scores for public school fourth-graders were rated significantly higher for Florida students and significantly lower for California students.