The Hedge-Fund Arsonist Now Campaigning as California’s Savior

Who is the most insufferable figure in California? For most conservatives, Gavin Newsom’s name instantly floats to mind: the hair, the smirk, the plastic piety, the barely disguised White House fantasies. But lurking behind the governor’s lacquered mane is someone arguably worse. A man who helped break California long before Newsom realized a good hair day could excuse a bad decade.
His name is Tom Steyer.
You almost have to admire the nerve. Almost.
Steyer is the billionaire hedge-fund alum turned full-time climate scold, now running for governor on a platform of “affordability” and “fairness.” If that sounds like arsonists for fire chief, you’re not far off. For years, Steyer has treated California as his personal policy playground. He poured his fortune into the very measures that sent the cost of living into the stratosphere, then turned around and announced that he, of all people, is here to fix it. (RELATED: Bill Gates and the Redemption Racket)
You almost have to admire the nerve. Almost.
Most Americans first met Steyer in 2020, squinting at the television and wondering why a man who looked like a nervous substitute teacher was spending a fortune to lose the Democratic presidential primary.
But his real damage wasn’t done on a debate stage. It was done in California’s ballot initiatives and back rooms.
Back in 2010, when ordinary Californians were still trying to cling to something resembling affordable energy, Steyer opened the checkbook. He bankrolled the effort to kill Prop 23, which would have rolled back the state’s sweeping climate law, AB 32. That law baked cap-and-trade, low-carbon fuel rules, and aggressive renewable mandates into the state’s DNA. Voters, bombarded by green advertising funded by people like Steyer, voted it down. (RELATED: California’s Hypocrisy on Property Rights)
Fast-forward to today. California’s electricity rates are about 33 percent higher than the national average. Across America, many people are paying more at the pump. But C...