Newsom to appear in top-dollar Biden fundraiser — while becoming Trump ad star

OAKLAND — California Gov. Gavin Newsom landed this week on the „A-list“ of presidential campaign surrogates for fellow Democrat Joe Biden — and Donald Trump.

Newsom is being touted as the star attraction for a $100,000-a-ticket virtual fundraiser this Friday for Biden. That high-dollar event comes just as the Trump campaign has released a new online campaign ad that features a recent clip of Newsom saying „promise made, promise kept“ about Trump delivering coronavirus test materials — echoing the tag line from the Republican’s reelection campaign.

Newsom hasn’t yet formally endorsed Biden and recently sidestepped questions from reporters on that front. But the fundraiser suggests that Biden’s team is relying on Newsom, who heads the nation’s most populous state and a Democratic ATM, to be a front-and-center endorser in the 2020 election.

Dan Newman, a political spokesperson for Newsom, said the event is a joint fundraiser with the Democratic National Committee, which allows for a more expensive fundraising ticket beyond the limit for presidential campaigns. He acknowledged that the event is unusual, especially coming before a formal endorsement, but with the pandemic, „Nothing has happened in the way it has happened in the past.“

„The Democratic governor of the largest state will strongly support the Democratic nominee,“ he said. But until now, „The governor has been intensely focused on the crisis, and thought it was difficult — or even counterproductive — to be involved in politics.“

The Friday „virtual fundraiser“ event, which also features former Obama campaign guru David Plouffe, gives Newsom the opportunity to not only publicly show his support of Biden, but also “show he’s a good Democrat,’’ said veteran California political analyst David McCuan of Sonoma State University. “The way to show your bona fides in the party is that you’ve got to be a rainmaker — and $100,000 is a lot of rain. That’s a pretty heavy downpour.”

But “writ large, it’s an indication of Newsom’s role as a national Democratic leader,’’ said McCuan. “It’s [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo on one coast and Newsom on the other coast,’’ he said.

The California governor’s “bromance” with Trump is an unexpected coronavirus development — after the two engaged in months of verbal warfare over everything from auto emissions to homelessness and California wildfires.

But since the Covid-19 pandemic, the president has repeatedly lavished praise on Newsom for his handling of the crisis in California. Newsom, in turn, has resisted any temptation to jab at Trump — instead thanking him profusely for providing medical equipment, ventilators and even the Navy hospital ship Mercy to the port of Los Angeles for extra bed capacity.

In one of the latest Trump ads, Newsom has a star role praising the president for his response to the Covid-19 crisis. „Every time I’ve called the president, he’s gotten on the line,“ Newsom says, adding that „he sent everything that I could have hoped for … every single thing he said, they followed through on … conversation, commitment.“ Cuomo also appears in the newest ad.

Regarding Newsom’s appearance in the Trump spots, Newman said the governor has believed that „we can’t do that traditional thing where we retreat to partisan corners.“ But he acknowledged that for the Democratic governor to appear in a Trump ad. „We are in interesting times, certainly not normal.“

Kurt Bardella, a former Republican strategist who is now a Democrat and a MSNBC analyst, said the star role underscores how Newsom “is the first California governor we’ve had in almost a decade who has a potential political future that extends beyond the governor’s mansion.”

But, he added: „Ultimately, how Gov. Newsom continues to handle the coronavirus pandemic and what value he can bring to the Biden campaign will determine how ready he is to assume a permanent place in the national political landscape.“