Changing the voter maps is sleazy but lesser evil

For Newsom, Prop. 50 is an easy sell to fight GOP election-rigging.

- GEORGE SKELTON

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

PEOPLE at a Proposition 50 rally on Saturday.

While President Trump was pushing National Guard troops from city to city like some little kid playing with his toy soldiers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was coaxing voters into fighting the man's election-rigging scheme.

It turned out to be an easy sell for the governor. By the end, Californians appeared ready to send a loud message that they objected not only to the president's election rigging but also to practically all his policies.

Trump is his own worst enemy, at least in this solidly blue state - and arguably the California GOP's biggest current obstacle to regaining relevancy.

Here's a guy bucking for the Nobel Peace Prize who suggests that the country resume nuclear weapons testing-a relic of the Cold War - and sends armed troops into Portland, Ore., and Chicago for no good reason.

The commander in chief bizarrely authorized Marines to fire artillery shells from a howitzer across busy Interstate 5. Fortunately, the governor shut down the freeway. Or else exploding shrapnel could have splattered heads in some topless convertible. As it was, metal chunks landed on a California Highway Patrol car and a CHP motorcycle. No injuries, but the president and his forces came across as blatantly reckless.

And while Trump focused on demolishing the first lady's historic East Wing of the White House and hitting up billionaire grovelers to pay for a monstrous, senseless $300-million ballroom - giving the image of a spoiled, self-indulgent monarch - Newsom worked on a much different project. He concentrated on building a high-powered coalition and raising well over $100 million to thwart the president with Proposition 50.