Thread by @latimes

Despite Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature, the California governor has broad powers.

The top GOP candidates hoping to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom all have vowed to upend a state Capitol held under firm Democratic rule for more than a decade.

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A Republican governor’s authority would likely be held in check by the state Assembly and Senate, both of which have Democratic supermajorities whose members could override vetoes and reject nominees to head state agencies and regulatory boards.

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But that does not constitute a firewall, a point Newsom and his political allies throughout the campaign have warned creates a grave threat to Californians.

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By executive order, Newsom enacted a moratorium on the death penalty and declared a state of emergency at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing him to suspend state laws and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on N95 masks.

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A new Republican governor could rescind all of those orders immediately and issue their own executive orders.

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Should a replacement candidate win on Sept. 14, they would have less than 2 months to prepare before taking charge of a state government w/ a $262.6-billion budget, 213,000 full-time employees & a public healthcare system with 12 million people enrolled.

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Any governor who wins an election arrives in Sacramento with a mandate, said Democrat Fabian Nuñez, who served as Assembly speaker during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first years in office.

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