California Gov Hopefuls Shred Newsom After He Skips A City Where Kids Were Shot

Multiple Democratic California gubernatorial candidates called out Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday evening for not personally going to Stockton after a mass shooting killed three children and one adult.

A massacre erupted at a children’s birthday party Saturday evening in Stockton, killing two 8-year-old girls, a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man, and injuring others. Despite the tragedy and media attention, Newsom did not go to the scene.

When asked by KCRA Political Director Ashley Zavala about the governor’s decision, three Democratic gubernatorial candidates and one Republican criticized Newsom’s absence.

“I believe the governor, he should have gone down to Stockton. I exchanged messages with the mayor of Stockton and she told me how horrible this is for her community and the fear of retaliation and what that was going to mean for her and her community. And this is an area in the Central Valley that already feels like their flyover country,” Democrat candidate Ian Calderon said.

“Nobody cares about us. You fly over us. You only come here when you’re campaigning. They can’t continue to feel like that. And they need to know that they can have a relationship with the governor and the state that when something significantly tragic like this happens,” Calderon added.

Democratic candidate Antonio Villaraigosa also answered Zavala’s question, saying he “showed up” during his tenure as mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013.

“I’ll tell you what I did when I was mayor. I always showed up. I showed up when a cop was shot. I showed up when families lost loved ones,” Villaraigosa said. “Actually, when I was a council member, I went to every single homicide in the two years that I was a council member in my district. When I was mayor, there were too many, but we reduced it to 1950 levels, as I said. But I think it’s important to show up. And I’m not criticizing anyone. I don’t know where he was at. But I could tell you for me, you show up.”