Gavin Newsom Is Reportedly Sending Burner Phones to Tech CEOs, a Normal Thing to Do

California governor Gavin Newsom wants tech executives to know they can call him if they’re ever in a pinch. Yes, Politico is out with a weird new story that claims the political leader has been sending a “prepaid, inexpensive cell phone (commonly known as a burner, for those of you who haven’t seen ‘The Wire’ or ‘Better Call Saul’)” to tech executives across the state. The phones have been sent to approximately 100 different CEOs, and come equipped with Newsom’s number, as well as a personalized note, the outlet writes. “If you ever need anything, I’m a phone call away,” read one note to an undisclosed executive.

It’s a somewhat bizarre stunt to pull, considering the fact that California’s C-suite can already safely presume that Newsom’s got their best interests at heart. More relevantly, in a time when the tech industry is basically synonymous with the authoritarian oligarchy taking over the country, why does it seem like a good idea to signal that you’re on their side?

It’s almost as if someone recently handed the governor a list of all the ways that he could potentially alienate the people most likely to vote for him if he ever runs for president (which many people assume is his long-term goal) and he is now dutifully ticking them off. Seriously, what is the game plan here, governor? The occasional display of good-natured corporate favoritism is common but what’s being done to fire up the people who actually go to the polls?

Newsom also recently launched a podcast, This Is Gavin Newsomwhich hasn’t enjoyed much fanfare. Newsom’s strategy with the podcast seems to be to court rightwing figures, politely debate them, and then try to find common ground with them. If launching a podcast was technically a good idea, the way that Newsom’s team has gone about it is all wrong. Democratic voters want a champion who is going to fight back against the Republicans’ most odious tendencies. They don’t want someone who is going to buddy up to Charlie Kirk, a guy who once said that public employees were “worthless parasites,” and who has claimed that there should be “no separation between church and state,” or Steve Bannon, Trump’s OG hatchet man whose eyes often seem capable of conveying the infernal fires of the underworld. Sentiment analysis of Newsom’s podcast showed that many listeners were not particularly impressed.

Much ink has been spilled about the Democratic Party’s complete and utter failure to meet the current moment. Recent polling shows that Democrats’ favorability ratings are at an all-time low—an impressive feat given the fact that the opposing party is currently a maelstrom of chaos and destruction and is threatening to take away Social Security. The general consensus is that Democrats have no strategy, no political identity, and no balls (both figuratively and literally). Jon Stewart’s recent takedown of the party’s hapless antics says it all.

If he wants to win the big prize, Newsom needs to be framing himself as a progressive firebrand, not a “moderate” Democrat. The Democratic delusion that candidates can somehow peel moderate voters away from the Republican party by seeming more conservative has never been borne out in the numbers. If Newsom were to run on a platform that more resembled that of Bernie Sanders (i.e., economic populism, protecting Social Security and Medicaid, caring about human beings instead of just corporate profits, etc.), while remaining centrist on social issues, I think he might have a shot at the White House. If, however, he continues to sell himself as a milquetoast version of a Reagan-era Republican, I do not believe the future looks bright for Newsom.