California Governor Gavin Newsom has sent out burner phones to about 100 of the state’s business leaders, according to a report. The cheap phones arrive pre-set with Newsom’s number and a note on official letterhead promising: “If you ever need anything, I’m a phone call away,” Politico reported Tuesday. The idea came from Newsom himself and has already yielded some “valuable interactions,” his representatives told the outlet. The phones are still going out as Newsom tries to prove he’s serious about maintaining his state’s competitive advantages. Already many viewed the governor—a former business executive who began his career with backing from the billionaire Getty family—as more aligned with private industry than with his fellow lawmakers, according to Politico. In September, he vetoed a sweeping state bill that would have imposed safety requirements on artificial intelligence models, creating a de facto national standard. He argued the bill was overly broad and worried it would have hurt California’s burgeoning AI industry, Politicoreported at the time. Many executives already had his contact information and had lobbied intensely for the veto. The phones were paid for with leftover money from Newsom’s inauguration accounts and with funds from the California Protocol Foundation, which collects money from businesses and nonprofits to pay for gubernatorial expenses, according to Politico.
