PHOTO: California Governor Gavin Newsom
Somehow, my email address has found its way onto California Governor Gavin Newsom’s email list.
I presume, because he likes political humor? And has enough spare time to read my columns?
He sent me this note a few days ago:
Last night, California became the first state to OFFICIALLY call for a Constitutional Amendment to make our communities safer from gun violence.
Will finding 33 more states calling to amend the Constitution be easy? No, of course not, I am clear-eyed about that.
But it will happen… eventually. And it started here. With us. Thank you for being a part of this team.
It’s so utterly cool, to find out you’re part of a team you didn’t know you were part of. Even if the team hasn’t actually accomplished anything of real importance, yet.
Except I’m not sure what the Governor means, by “And it all started here.”
“Here” for me, is “Colorado”.
As far as I know, “here” for Governor Newsom is, “California”.
Granted, Colorado is a lot like California (and becoming more like it with each passing day) but they are definitely two different “heres”. The last time I drove to California, it took, like, 10 hours, and that only got me to Needles, which is even more “in the middle of nowhere” than Pagosa Springs, if such a thing is possible.
It’s possible, however, that what the Governor means by “here” is “the Internet”. Which is also a “here” in a weird sort of way. And it’s a “here” that the Governor and I share, occasionally.
Last week’s email from Governor Newsom also said:
I am writing to ask you to donate $6.67.
…We will use every dollar raised today to get it introduced, and passed, in more states.
I often get asked to donate money, for this or that worthy cause. But I have never been asked to donate $6.67. So I was naturally curious where the Governor came up with that particular amount. At first, I wondered if the resolution passed by the California legislature last week might have been numbered “667”, but it turns it was Joint Resolution 7.
So I had to put on my thinking cap. Luckily, my thinking had been been recently re-charged, because I was able to quickly calculate that a Constitutional Convention of the U.S. states must be called by at least two-thirds of the state legislatures, according to the U.S. Constitution.
Two-thirds is 66.7%. Roughly.
As we all know, the U.S. has never held a Constitutional Convention. Previous Constitutional Amendments were placed before the voters by Congress, which is totally allowable but not nearly as exciting.
So I like the idea of a Constitutional Convention. And obviously, the Governor does, as well.
I went to a convention once, when I was in high school, and it was lots of fun. We got to stay in a hotel and everything. One of my friends, who also attended (and who could already grow facial hair) had a fake ID.
Why we have waited 230 years to have a Constitutional Convention, makes no sense at all.
The amendment suggested by the California legislature would essentially add the gun control laws, already passed in California, to the U.S. Constitution as Amendment 28.
The Governor and I both know — even living in different places — that the chances “slim to none” that 66.7% of the state legislatures will endorse any kind of gun control initiative that got its start in California.
What is really going on here (in the figurative sense of “here”) is that Gavin Newsom is jockeying for a Democratic Party Presidential nomination in 2028 or 2032.
I bet, then, he will be asking for more than $6.67. Assuming he hasn’t kicked me off his email list by then.