Prop 1 is complicated. Its first ad keeps it simple.

Jan 30, 2024

By Rachel Bluth, Lara Korte and Dustin Gardiner

Presented by

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about mental health crisis before signing off on two major pieces of legislation to transform the state's mental health system and to address the state's worsening homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.

THE BUZZ — Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to convince California’s 20 million voters to overhaul the state’s mental health system. To do it, he’s leaning on homeless veterans.

In the first TV ad for Proposition 1, shared exclusively with Playbook, the Democratic governor highlights one portion of his $6.4 billion proposal to create 11,000 new treatment beds and change the way counties spend their mental health budgets.

The measure funnels $1 billion of that total to housing for veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Legislative debate over the governor’s proposal focused heavily on how it would change California’s decades-old mental health law. But this first ad stays away from the proposition’s most controversial elements — like shifting money away from mental health programs to housing, or increased involuntary treatment for the state’s sickest people. Instead, it highlights how it would help some of the most sympathetic figures a political campaign could ask for.

“California veterans have given everything for our freedom, often at extraordinary cost to themselves,” Newsom says in the ad. “Prop 1 is for them.”

The 30-second ad airs statewide starting today with a seven-figure ad buy. Watch it for yourself.

Prop 1 is largely expected to pass, despite opposition from mental health care providers and patient advocates, thanks in no small part to the governor’s role as the face of the campaign. A recent POLITICO | Morning Consult Poll clocked support at more than 70 percent of likely primary voters.

The ballot measure is also a chance for the ambitious governor to show he’s taking bold steps to address California’s homelessness crisis, a black mark on the state’s national reputation that could hinder his dreams of higher office.

As of Jan. 20 the campaign has more than $14 million in cash on hand, according to state records. Prop. 1 spokesperson Anthony York said this is the first of several spots the campaign will launch ahead of the March 5 primary, noting the tight deadline.

“We want to make sure voters come out to the polls, they know that this is there and that when they’re in the booth or filling out the ballot at their kitchen table, that they make sure to vote ‘yes’ on Prop. 1,” he said.

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CAMPAIGN YEAR

Reichi Lee, left, and Rhodesia Ransom, delegate for the California Democratic Party, take a selfie at the launch of the statewide campaign United For Barbara Lee, on Saturday, April 29, 2023 in San Francisco.

Rhodesia Ransom, right, at the launch of the statewide campaign United For Barbara Lee, on Saturday, April 29, 2023 in San Francisco. | (Peter Barreras/AP Images for PowerPAC+)

DEM NOD TO DEM NO’ED — Eleventh-hour machinations are shaping a Stockton-area Assembly race where Democrat Rhodesia Ransom had to forfeit a coveted California Democratic Party endorsement — and now the party has scolded Ransom for brandishing the blue bona fide.

Ransom was overwhelmingly the party’s chosen candidate in the 5th Senate district. The problem? She’s not running in SD-5 anymore. She pivoted into the 13th Assembly district after Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua switched into the Senate race and his wife Edith Villapudua swapped into AD-13, hours before the deadline, to boost their prospects (neither Villapudua had been endorsed).

The late switcheroo meant the party hasn’t made an endorsement — a key signal to voters in a Dem-on-Dem clash — in either race. But Ransom still used the party logo on Assembly campaign materials. The party warned Ransom to knock it off in a letter last week despite conceding she’s piled up local support.

— Jeremy B. White

NAME CALLING — When it comes to political office, name ID is a critical part of the game. Which is why Central Valley residents took notice when CA-22 Republican candidate Chris Mathys recently began pronouncing his name differently.

Mathys, a MAGA conservative running to unseat Republican Rep. David Valadao, has long pronounced his name “Mat-eese,” much like French artist Henri Matisse. It’s how newscasters, the House Majority PAC, and even a supporter on Mathys’ own YouTube page have pronounced it.

But in his latest ad, dropped Monday, Mathys introduces himself as Chris “Math-is.”

“It’s pronounced both ways,” he said when we asked him about it, adding that it’s of Swiss-German origin, but voters in his Central Valley district tend to struggle a bit with the “Matisse” pronunciation, which is why he switched.

Not everyone is convinced. It just so happens that CA-22 overlaps heavily with longtime Republican Assemblymember Devon Mathis’ district.

Mathys told us he is “absolutely not” trying to ride Mathis’ coattails, but Assemblymember Mathis called his fellow Republican a “shitbag” who is trying to use his name ID to bolster his congressional campaign.

“The man is worthless,” Mathis said when we caught up with him outside Assembly chambers on Monday. “He’s a liar. He’s a cheater. And he’s a carpetbagger.”

Mathis isn’t running for reelection this year, but we should note he’s a staunch supporter of Valadao.

Mathys pushed back against the name-calling — saying that he’s lived in the Central Valley since childhood and that his parents have always alternated between “Mat-eese” and “Math-is.”

“I’ve grown up with two pronunciations my whole life,” he said.

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Top Talkers

— California has relaxed its Covid-19 guidance, and is now even looser than the CDC. (Los Angeles Times)

— Sacramento Police are investigating a stabbing that took place Monday morning near the state Capitol, at the corner of N and 10th Streets (CBS News)

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PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED: MINGLING OVER MEDIA — A host of well-known politicians, tech executives and others gathered in downtown San Francisco on Monday for Common Sense Media’s annual summit on child safety in the modern tech and media world.

This year’s summit was held at the Pier 27 building on the Embarcadero Waterfront. Among the dignitaries we spotted: former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.); former Disney-ABC President Gerry Laybourne; Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; NYT Columnist Nicholas Kristof; Sesame Workshop CEO Steve Youngwood; Pinterest CFO Malik Ducard; philanthropist Lisa Stone Pritzker; billionaire and activist Tom Steyer; Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg; California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly; and former Assemblymember Ted Lempert.

Common Sense CEO Jim Steyer (a brother of Tom Steyer’s) jokingly told Playbook that he calls the event “Davos for kids,” just without the profit and pretension of the ritzy worldwide economic forum held in Switzerland.

While Clinton was in town, she attended a Sunday evening fundraiser to support her work on human and women's rights. Mega Democratic donor Susie Tompkins Buell, who co-founded the North Face and Esprit clothing brands, hosted the fundraiser. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis attended and tweeted a pic of the three women.

BIRTHDAYS — (was Monday): Amazon’s Mary Kate McCarthy … Kristine Grow of Arnold Ventures … Maureen “Mo” Elinzano of Rep. Doris Matsui’s (D-Calif.) office … Aaron Krasney

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