PD Editorial: An ill-timed trip for state lawmakers

The coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday, is exhausting.

Perhaps the governor needs a few days of R&R. Here’s an idea: a trip to Hawaii. And he’s in luck. If he goes right away, he can get together with some people he knows quite well — California lawmakers on a mid-pandemic junket.

Then again, maybe that’s not such a good idea.

After all, Newsom’s exhaustion comment came as he apologized for his hypocritical behavior: directing Californians to stay home and avoid large gatherings, then sitting down to birthday dinner with a dozen people at the French Laundry in Yountville.

At least Newsom apologized.

Legislators — those willing to talk — are defending their attendance at a weeklong conference at a luxury resort on Maui.

Republican lawmakers told Politico that the trip is consistent with their support for more business activity during the pandemic. “This event promotes intelligent public policy in our state,” said Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-Templeton.

Democrats, including state Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa, say the conference is an opportunity to learn about issues that will be on the agenda when the Legislature reconvenes in Sacramento next month.

“I get the optics,” Dodd said in a phone interview, “but at the same time, it’s important for legislators to be out and learning and getting ready for the session.”

About 20 lawmakers from California, Texas and Washington are attending the conference, along with representatives of businesses and trade groups. The five-day event is sponsored by a nonprofit group called the Independent Voter Project, whose board is made up of political insiders.

Organizers say the conference is focused on the coronavirus pandemic. One of the sessions — no fooling — is planning for the resumption of tourism after the pandemic.

Suffice to say, attending panel discussions at a resort in Hawaii has nothing in common with the “distance learning” that California schoolchildren have had to settle for since mid-March.

And, aside from the tropical sunshine, the conference could easily have been replicated on Zoom.

Dodd said he wasn’t aware of Newsom’s attendance at the French Laundry birthday dinner for lobbyist Jason Kinney before leaving for Hawaii on Saturday, or that stricter guidelines, including a new overnight curfew, were in the offing for California because of a surge in coronavirus infections.

“If it wasn’t Hawaii,” he said, “I don’t think it would even be a story.”

That may be true in any other year; the annual conference is invariably the subject of gotcha news reports and disapproving editorials, including some of our own. This year, with much of the legislative session canceled because of COVID fears, is a different story.

Millions of people have lost their jobs and more than 250,000 have died over the past eight months. Most Americans are making small sacrifices, like wearing masks, and big ones, like skipping holidays and get-togethers with friends and loved ones, while waiting for a vaccine to be available.

So people are justifiably angry when their leaders flout the rules, whether it’s President Donald Trump hosting superspreader events at the White House and indoor campaign rallies, Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting a salon closed to the public, Newsom attending parties — or state lawmakers jetting off to the South Pacific while everyone else is being told to stay home.

They need to live up to a higher standard than do as we say, not as we do.

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