California Gov. Newsom and family moving to Marin County for children's schooling
SACRAMENTO — California Governor Gavin Newsom's family is leaving Sacramento for Marin County.
The Governor's Office made the announcement, explaining that Newsom and his wife, first partner Jennifer Siebel-Newsom, are doing it for their children's future schooling.
California is one of the few states without a permanent governor's residence. The Governor's Historic Mansion downtown is now used primarily as a formal reception venue.
The first family is now saying a semi-farewell to their 12,000-square-foot Sacramento County home. Paul Kelly lives next door and said they have been good neighbors.
"The governor and his family are very gentle, nice people, polite in every way," Kelly said.
CalMatters Capitol columnist Dan Walters has covered every governor and their residential moves for six decades. Inside his office is a photo of Walters interviewing then-Governor Jerry Brown in 1975.
"Jerry Brown was a young bachelor," Walters said. "He lived in an apartment across the street from the capitol."
Following Brown, Walters said that governors Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, and George Deukmajien all searched for a proper governor's residence.
There was always a problem.
"There was an effort during Gray Davis's governorship—a fairly serious effort—to build a governor's mansion across the Sacramento River in West Sacramento, and it was a going thing until he got recalled," Walters said. "And then Arnold Schwarzenegger came in and that was the end of that one."
A Carmichael compound that the state built on a parcel it named Gobernaderos Lane was commissioned by Nancy Reagan. By the time it was built, the state decided to sell it to a private owner.
"When Deukmajian became governor in '83, he wanted to live in that house that had been built in the Reagan administration, and the legislature sold it out from under him and basically wouldn't let him live in the house," Walters said.
Schwarzenegger flew to Sacramento from Los Angeles and lived in a suite in the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
In Brown's second term as governor, he did restore the old governor's mansion downtown. Security became a question when someone broke in.
Walters said building a new permanent governor's home will likely never happen.
"It's easy to criticize, 'Oh well. You want to spend $100 million to build a governor's mansion? We got better things to do with the money,' " Walters said.
Newsom's term ends in 2027. Officially, his office said he will split time between the Marin and Sacramento County homes.