Gavin Newsom Poised to Succeed Jerry Brown as California Governor  

 Sunday, June 3rd, in a Hollywood nightclub, Academy, hundreds of fans assembled to witness lead runner for the Gubernatorial race, Gavin Newsom, in his "Courage for a Change," rally.

  At 33 per cent in the lead, 48 hours before the close of the polls, Newsom sent the message out loud and clear, to get out the vote.

   Strobe lights danced across the floor.  A post modern fresco alighted the ceiling with the rolling blue waves of California's coast.

  Above, the forever waves of blue, below, the crowds, and between, the air infused with music, lyrics singing, "I'm walking on Sunshine, as an overture as carefully designed as Newsom's pending speech. The tone and theme for Californians to have the courage for a change was set.

  As if out of a storybook of the American dream, Gavin began his life after college selling orthotics and working as an assistant at a real estate firm. Two years later, in 1991, he founded PlumpJack, a wine shop, which he grew into an enterprise of 21 businesses, including wineries, restaurants, and hotels.

  By 2003,  Candidate Gavin Newsom became the  42nd mayor of San Francisco and is currently, the Lieutenant Governor of California.

  Married to actress and filmmaker, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Gavin and his wife have four young children.

  He is poised to succeed Jerry Brown by becoming the next governor of California, according to the polls.

  Newsom's wife appeared on stage to introduce her husband as the  first mayor who enabled same sex couples.

  With pride, she also touted Newsom as the only leader of San Francisco to have enacted universal healthcare, raised minimum wage, enacted universal pre-school and afater school and, as Siebel-Newsom said, "He's been a champion for all of us."

   When Gavin took the stage from his wife, he said, "We are in a unique position to do extraordinary things" He then told a story about Jerry Brown as an example of what California can accomplish.

  "Five days after trump said we are going to pull out of the Paris Accord," Gavin said, " Brown made his way to the airport, flew to Bejing, sat down with president Xi in the presidential palace, and signed a memorandum of understanding, basically, doubling down on the Paris Accord"

  Newsom touted Brown and the state, as he said, "Only one state in America can do that, the state of California."

  Candidate Newsom spent a lot of his time on stage talking about how Trump has impacted the country.

   He said, "I get it, all the anxiety that's coming out of White House, all the anxiety coming out of trump, Trump is the complicity that is the Republican Congress."

   Newsom chanted on about California in a celebratory tone, which one of the themes of the night.  He said,

"Our ability to live together, to prosper together is what makes California  great today."

   He described California as a state that is 39 per cent Hispanic, that 27 per cent of our population is foreign born,  and that the state that has brought in 112,000 refugees in the last 15 years. He said, "There's no state like California."

  Gavin returned to his theme about Trump, "I don't think about surviving Trump, we will thrive during these Trump years!"

  Another theme of Candidate Newsom, was one about paralleling our lives today with those of the 60's. He quoted Martin Luther King. "We're all bound together by a web of mutuality."

  As the rally went on, Newsom began to sound reminiscent of Obama's, "Together we can."

  He said, "But at the end of the day, unite around the things that bind us together. What makes California great  is not that we tolerate the diversity but we truly  celebrate that diversity each and every day."

  Newsom summoned up the words of President Clinton too, as he said, "Celebrate all of our interesting differences."

  The theme of Trump returned, as Newsom chanted, as if in a litany, many of the issue that are being attacked by Trump's administration.

  "Our values are under threat, our values are being attacked by Trump.

  Our dreamers are being attacked by  the Trump

Administration.

  Our diversity  is being attacked by the Trump Administration

  Our health care is being attacked by the Trump Administration.

 Our clean air, our clean water our off shore is being attacked by the Trump Administration

  And we can either roll over or step up and step in, recognizing that we have agency,  that we can shape the future."

  Another theme was that of moral versus formal authority. Newsom said,   "I think a lot about this issue of moral authority because it's the one thing missing in the white house today.  The more you use your formal authority , the less you have of it  The more you share your moral authority, the more abundant it becomes." Then, there was a wave of applauds, cheering Newsom on.

  In closing, Newsom rallied everyone behind the idea to restore a sense of morality and purpose.

To the crowd: "you wouldn't be here unless you share a sense of purpose."

 He said, "It's decisions at the end of the day

decisions that determine our fate and future."

  "There's nothing we can do that will defy your moral courage more than helping folk who are out in the streets and in the sidewalks, by bending down on one knee and lift those folks up. You will stand taller than anybody else," Newsom said, as if with the cadence of a preacher.

  The crowds cheered him on as he said,  "There are tens and thousands of people in this state that are formally homeless.  We can solve the issue of homelessness."

  Embedded in his litany are the issues he's tackling, and he, as if a chorus leader, encourages  the people to take on the issues with him.

  "Its not you vote and I decide," he said. "That's not what this campaign is about.  Its about a two way  conversation, not just around this election but after election day, after  June 5th and hopefully after a successful election come November."

  Moments later, after all the photographs with peoples' smart phones were taken with the candidate, after his fans followed him out onto Hollywood Boulevard, like a flash in the night, Gavin Newsom disappeared into the big white bus, in rock star style.