WATCH: Bonta talks Newsom’s potential White House run, congressional redistricting election

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) - Following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement he’s pondering a presidential run in 2028, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Monday that Newsom is “gubernatorial and more” during a press conference about the state's congressional redistricting election.

“Gavin Newsom is an amazing governor and an incredible leader,” Bonta told The Center Square on Monday. “I think he is completely crushing it right now. I think the people of this nation see his leadership, and I think many of them would like him to continue to lead.”

Bonta’s comments about Newsom follow the Democratic governor's announcement on Sunday that he is considering a run for the White House in 2028, a run he has long been expected to make. 

Newsom's announcement comes at a time the U.S. Department of Justice said election monitors would come to California to monitor the state’s Nov. 4 special election on Proposition 50, which would draw new congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The new districts are designed to pick up five additional Democratic seats in the House.

While at first saying he had no idea if he would run, Newsom admitted a potential run is on his mind after the 2026 midterms.

“Yeah - I’d be lying otherwise. I’d just be lying, and I can’t do that,” Newsom told "CBS News Sunday Morning’s" Robert Costa when asked if he would seriously consider a presidential run after next year’s midterm elections.

Bonta told The Center Square on Monday that he sees Newsom standing up for the rule of law, democracy, the Constitution and the people of California.

“He’ll decide on his timeline what he wants to do, when he wants to do it, and if he will do it, and I think I’ve always seen him as incredibly gubernatorial and more,” Bonta, a Democrat, said as he answered a question from The Center Square. “So if he wants to continue to lead, in whatever capacity that is, I think it would only benefit the people of this great state and this great nation.”

Federal election monitors on their way to California

The U.S. Department of Justice also announced last week that election monitors would be sent to California to observe the Prop. 50 election, worrying Bonta that the Republican Party might be making a move to sway the special election.

“The specifics, we don’t yet have,” Bonta said about the arrival of election monitors. “It’s with a great deal of concern that I see these so-called ‘election monitors’ coming to California.”

Bonta said historically, election monitors are sometimes sent by the U.S. Department of Justice to states during elections in places where voting rights were previously violated or suppressed in order to ensure that all eligible voters can vote.

“But these are not normal times,” Bonta said during the press conference. “All the reports have revealed that the Republican Party is the one who requested that the monitors come in, so at the beginning it’s very partisan.”

Election monitors are being sent to five counties in California, including Kern, Riverside, Fresno, Orange and Los Angeles, according to a press release issued on Friday from the U.S. Department of Justice. Bonta pushed back on federal efforts to monitor or observe the election, fearing that immigrant voters would be targeted the most by federal election monitors.

“Our immigrant communities are often the ones being pointed at, wrongly, unfairly, unjustly,” Bonta said. “The Republican Party of Trump, many of those around him - they lead with fear, and they create conspiracies and lies to gin up and generate fear to impact behavior they think will help them.”

While these federal election monitors are themselves going to be observed to make sure they don’t interfere in the special election, Bonta said, they will be allowed to watch and observe activities at polling places.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to ensure transparency.

“Transparency at the polls translates into faith in the electoral process, and this Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of election integrity,” Bondi said in the press release. “We will commit the resources necessary to ensure the American people get the fair, free and transparent elections they deserve.”

A representative from the U.S. Department of Justice declined to answer questions from The Center Square Monday afternoon. Instead, the DOJ referred to the press release quoting Bondi.

Proposition 50

Proposition 50, the only statewide measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, allows California voters the chance to allow a redrawing of congressional district lines, temporarily taking that responsibility away from the state’s California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which draws both state and congressional district lines. The Prop. 50 redistricting push is Newsom’s response to Texas’s recent congressional redistricting effort, which gave Republicans in the Lone Star State the potential to pick up five more seats in the U.S. House.

California’s Prop. 50 special election will cost the taxpayers of the Golden State an estimated $200 million, according to the arguments against Prop. 50 on the California Secretary of State’s website. But the Legislative Analyst's Office put the cost to the state at about $200,000 for one-time costs.

To date, more than $49 million has been spent so far in support of Prop. 50, while more than $42 million has been spent by those who oppose the measure, according to the Fair Political Practices Commission’s Prop. 50 database.

If Prop. 50 is passed by California voters, counties would shoulder a one-time cost of up to a few million dollars to update election materials with the new congressional district maps, according to the official voter information guide. The new maps would expire in 2030.

The congressmen who stand to lose their seats if Prop. 50 passes are Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin; Darrell Issa, R-San Diego County; Doug LaMalfa, R-Yuba City; David Valadao, R-Bakersfield, and Ken Calvert, R-Riverside County.