By Christopher Cadelago and Melanie Mason

Newsom attacks Republican leaders at a POLITICO live event in Sacramento on Tuesday. | Allison Stahl for POLITICO

OH, MY KEVIN: Gov. Gavin Newsom had less than five minutes left in our interview.

Then, Kevin McCarthy’s name was invoked. Suddenly, the California Democrat had all the time in the world.

“I’m gonna add 20 minutes back,” Newsom said, in what turned out not to be a joke. “I actually have a lot of time.”

Newsom, speaking at POLITICO’s “Golden State of California” event Tuesday evening in Sacramento, leaned into his growing role as one of the Democrats’ most aggressive attack dogs. He teased McCarthy for launching an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden at the direction of former President Donald Trump — and for reneging on his vow to seek a floor vote to begin the impeachment inquiries. And he performed a postmortem on Ron DeSantis’ 2024 campaign before the body is even cold. For Newsom, it was death by “belly flop,” hastened by DeSantis’ embrace of culture war issues that have turned off Republican donors while failing to wrest control of the MAGA base away from Trump.

“The best thing that could happen to DeSantis is, tomorrow he packs it in and keeps his money and fights another day,” Newsom said.

Newsom’s surrogacy gets a boost this week when he heads to Chicago for VIP meetings with DNC and Biden campaign officials. Later this month, he’s expected to serve as a main antagonist of sorts when Republicans go to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley for their second presidential debate.

The uptick can be explained by two factors: He’s among his party’s most skilled interlocutors — with one top Biden adviser recently musing that he cemented his status in that class by ably sparring with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The other is the lack of major party stars outside the administration so far who have put in the time on behalf of Biden.

Chris has more of Newsom’s hits on the GOP here.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON! Welcome to California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to [email protected] or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open!

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COLLEGE COSTS: California State University’s governing board this afternoon OK’d tuition hikes that will affect more than 100,000 students. There will be 6 percent increases in each of the next five years across the 23-campus system, which had raised tuition only once in the last 12 years. The board’s 15-5 vote — meant to help plug a growing hole in the system’s budget — ran up against opposition from the university faculty union, student association, and board members Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and state Superintendent Tony Thurmond. The 60 percent of students whose tuition is covered by financial aid will not be affected by the decision. — Blake Jones

TRAVEL BAN LIFTED: Newsom today signed legislation by Senate Leader Toni Atkins to end the ban on publicly funded travel to 26 states that enacted anti-LGBTQ policies.

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SHERIFF’S SECOND ACT: There was no love lost between Alex Villanueva and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors during his controversial tenure as sheriff. Now, he wants to join the board. Villanueva’s newly announced campaign against Supervisor Janice Hahn has a similar focus as his tough-on-crime reelection bid, which he lost by more than 20 points.

Villanueva’s announcement in a television interview Tuesday night took aim at the entire board, saying it has “failed miserably” in keeping the county safe. Dave Jacobson, Hahn’s campaign consultant, issued a statement with some choice f-words of his own: “He is a fraud and a failure, and LA County voters won’t be fooled again."

SINGLE PAYER: California has moved closer to achieving the long-elusive progressive goal of developing a single-payer health care system. The Assembly today passed state Sen. Scott Wiener’s Senate Bill 770 in a 42-15 vote. The legislation would enable California to seek permission from the federal government to develop a health care financing system that gives everyone the same benefits, regardless of whether they have public or private insurance. The proposal has angered both single-payer advocates, who want the state to move faster, and opponents of such an overhaul.

If it gets out of the Legislature, there’s the question of what Newsom does with it. A single-payer proponent when first elected, the governor has since changed his tune to champion the more achievable goal of “universal coverage.” While the bill is the product of a commission he himself created, the proposal hasn’t been viewed as a guaranteed signature for most of the session. But Wiener’s office said he worked with Newsom’s office on implementation details in the latest round of amendments, so that could be a positive sign for the bill’s future. — Rachel Bluth

Rep. Mike Garcia | Mike Garcia/Facebook

IMPEACHY KEEN: McCarthy’s decision to unilaterally launch an impeachment inquiry against Biden has some front-line Republicans nervous — but not Rep. Mike Garcia. Garcia, a top target for Democrats next year, told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo today that there’s a “critical mass” of evidence of Biden wrongdoing to move the investigation forward.

“I represent a district that Biden won by 13% and they want clarity,” said Garcia, whose 27th Congressional District covers Santa Clarita. “They want the truth.”

This isn’t the first time Garcia has aligned with the GOP’s right flank while representing a blue district. On Jan. 6, 2021, he voted to block the results of the 2020 presidential election. Democrats weren’t able to capitalize on the ideological mismatch, though, and the congressman won reelection by a comfy 7-point margin.

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PURSUING OTHER OPTIONS: Turns out, there may have been more to the unexpected resignation in January of Uduak-Joe Ntuk as State Oil & Gas supervisor. Ntuk says in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles that he was effectively fired by the Newsom administration for balking at orders to implement the state-imposed buffer zone around oil wells as it was about to be put on hold by an industry-backed referendum. He says he filed a whistleblower complaint, but the Department of Conservation reportedly has no record of it. (The Bakersfield Californian)

STILL WATERS: Tulare Lake, which reemerged in the southern San Joaquin Valley because of the unusually wet and snowy winter, has become a hotbed of avian botulism that has killed hundreds of birds because there’s no natural flow in or out of what is essentially a nearly Tahoe-size puddle. (San Francisco Chronicle)

STARTER HOME:  Political strategist Clint Reilly and his wife, Janet, are selling a home on Mt. Veeder in the Napa Valley, a 6,230-square-foot home on 130 acres (including the vineyard) with an asking price of $22 million. (The Wall Street Journal)

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