Email insights: More California love from Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis takes another Democratic attack.

Yet again, the Ron DeSantis political operation is going back to Cali, with another attack on a Golden State Democrat.

The latest confrontational callback to California arrived in donors’ emails Wednesday, with DeSantis invoking yet another Democrat from that state in an email entitled “The Left is scared of freedom.”

“Elitist Democrat politicians like Charlie Crist and his friend from California, Representative Adam Schiff, are calling me ‘the most dangerous governor in America,'” the email said. “They fear me because I represent a threat to their agenda.”

A Crist fundraising email went to Schiff’s email list, spurring the DeSantis email pitch, which continues an ongoing back and forth with various California Democrats.

The most resilient storyline has been the back and forth with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, which has seen the two bickering cross-country for months, a phenomenon DeSantis also has used for fundraising fodder.

“While these draconian rules were ruining people’s lives, Nancy Pelosi was getting her hair done in a salon she made sure was shut down for everyone else. Gavin Newsom was dining indoors at restaurants that were otherwise closed to the rest of the population,” DeSantis fumed in August.

“It seems like Newsom has done his job encouraging filth and debauchery on the streets of San Francisco that he’s now set his sights on our state,” asserted a Team DeSantis email, also from August. “Charlie has made it clear that if you want Florida to turn into a crime-ridden homeless encampment and open-air drug market where drag shows and vaccines are required at school, he’s your guy.”

As we’ve noted before, polling shows the feud is good for both politicians. Polling in Newsom’s home state shows DeSantis competitive with Donald Trump in a still-hypothetical GOP Primary in two years, with Newsom at the top of a crowded and diffuse field of hypothetical candidates on the other side.

But DeSantis seems to know the limits of this feud. He deflected a debate challenge from Newsom this week during a Fox News Channel interview.

“I don’t know if they can reliably keep the power on, so you go out there for a debate and what ends up happening, you know, if they can’t keep the lights on?”

DeSantis has also found ways to fuel his feud with Vice President Kamala Harris, who polls continue to suggest would get more votes nationwide than DeSantis if they ever faced off on a General Election ballot.

“So, here’s the thing. I thought (Joe) Biden picking her at first was the worst decision ever because she’s not great. But she’s like the best impeachment insurance and 25th Amendment insurance anyone could have,” DeSantis said in July.

“Because as bad as Biden is, even though he can barely read the teleprompter, and as much as people disapprove of him, nobody wants Harris, and so they’d much rather stick with Biden floundering around than actually turn the wheels of power over to somebody that clearly is in over her head.”

Will Schiff have the staying power of Harris or Newsom in DeSantis’ ongoing feast of grievance politics cash-ins? Whether he does or not, Wednesday’s email is the latest example of DeSantis seeking fundraising gold from Golden State storylines.