The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

Budget oversight is not in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wheelhouse, as the four-year slide from a budget surplus to a looming $22.5 billion deficit attests. Apparently, neither are ethical considerations. During Newsom’s Thursday presser to tout his investment in community schools, KCRA News reporter Ashley Zavala asked about the questionable appointment of Assemblywoman Mia Bonta to lead the budget committee that oversees her husband Rob Bonta’s attorney general budget.

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has somehow developed ethical amnesia, as he is the one who made the appointment. Our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar pointed out why this should be of grave concern:

The budget process is anything but transparent. There are laws on the books that, in theory, create a transparent process, but the legislature routinely votes to set aside those safeguards in the final days and weeks of the budget process so members can partake in back room deals and gut-and-amend existing bills to get around the normal process of citizen and committee input. Detailing all of the ways California Democrats completely flip off the taxpayers during the budget process would take hours, though, so we’ll leave it at that one example.

Whether or not the legislature sets salaries or benefits for state constitutional officers is irrelevant to whether they personally or financially — or politically — benefit from the budget process. That is apparent to anybody with half a brain, which might exclude Rendon.

The decades of unchecked political power California Democrats have enjoyed have skewed their perception of what’s ethical and unethical; they’ve constantly redefined the term and have no self-awareness. As Bob Stern, former general counsel for the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s political ethics watchdog, told local news station KCRA:

“It [Mia Bonta’s appointment] should raise eyebrows. What’s going on with them? It seems to me they have a tin ear about ethics.”

So Zavala’s question was on point and essential. Does the chief executive of the state care that this appointment skates across ethical lines?

I asked Gov. Gavin Newsom if it’s ethical for Assemblymember M Bonta to lead a budget committee that oversees her husband AG Bonta’s budget.

“I literally have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said even after I explained. pic.twitter.com/aLFCWotetq

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) February 16, 2023

Here is the video of this response.

WATCH:

Exchange between me and Gov. Newsom when I asked him if it’s ethical for Assemblymember Bonta to lead budget committee that oversees her husband, AG Rob Bonta’s budget:

“Thank you for informing me…” pic.twitter.com/h3fIzCPqmG

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) February 16, 2023

Newsom acts as though he’s high. Rocking back and forth, closing his eyes like he cannot focus.

From the stories I have heard, he may well be.

Former President Barack Obama would conveniently claim he “read it in the news,” about the corruption and overreach of his administration. Newsom is playing the same card, and lo and behold, developed Rendon’s affliction of ethical amnesia. Must be a Democrat thing.

Newsom knows exactly what Zavala is talking about. His Hairfulness has no response because he is just as guilty of skating a figure eight around ethical guidelines.

The Representation Project, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s non-profit, appears to be the fount of much of the graft and corruption that flows through the Newsom household and fills their coffers. All under the guise of art and education. Just like Newsom’s PlumpJack wineries exploit his relationship with the Gettys, Siebel Newsom has made her own cottage industry out of her marriage to first the lieutenant governor, now the governor of the state.

Breitbart reported on a 2019 Washington Post story,

The Mask You Live In received $25,000 in donations from PG&E, which was credited as an associate producer on some of the titles.

Overall, the Post reported that PG&E’s foundation gave $358,000 to Jennifer Newsom’s The Representation Project between 2011 and 2018, according to tax records and information provided by the utility.

At one point, PG&E executive Brandon Hernandez joined the board of The Representation Project. He later left the board and has since departed PG&E.

The sins of PG&E are legion in the state of California. From the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, where eight people died, to the 2018 Paradise Fire where Governor Newsom intervened on behalf of the corrupt utility and payouts to fire victims have been delayed ever since, this behemoth has much blood on its hands, but pays handsomely for government coverup absolution.

It’s not just PG&E that has feathered the Governor and First Partner’s nest. Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente and media conglomerate Comcast have also given patronage to Newsom, Inc.

Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, received $2.3 million in total salary from her nonprofit, The Representation Project, between 2011 and 2018, according to the nonprofit’s tax returns highlighted in an investigation by The Sacramento Bee. Siebel Newsom’s foundation billed itself as a gender watchdog organization releasing films to “challenge limiting gender stereotypes and shift norms.” Newsom has appeared in two of The Representation Project’s films, the Bee reported.

A recent 2023 overview in The Washington Examiner about the Open The Books expose on Siebel Newsom’s non-profit alleges that she steered state funds into school mental health initiatives that benefit The Representation Project.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s (D) wife reportedly steered state funding toward mental health initiatives for schools, a field in which her nonprofit organization also works.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom directed the $4.7 billion in funding, which was announced in August 2022, to be pushed toward mental health topics, with the funds looking to help her nonprofit organization The Representation Project, which provides films and curriculum for students regarding “intersectional gender justice.”

RedState reported on this same expose here, and here illuminating that money laundering is also at play. Not to mention that Siebel Newsom’s so-called educational documentaries promote pornography, the transgender agenda, and of course CRT.

These same geniuses that have banned classics such as To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, purchase this crap and allow it to be peddled by the spouse of the highest elected official in the state.

While Siebel Newsom skates the edges of pornography and dives deeply into gender identity nonsense, don’t even think that white, male privilege would escape her lens.

Of course it hasn’t.

So when Newsom gives that deer-in-the-headlights look and claims he has no idea what is being talked about, he is averting his gaze from the corruption and ethical violations staring him in the face.