It’s a truism in American politics that everybody hates New York and California. Now while there are many fine people and great Americans living in both locales, New York has an image of a state filled with loud Marxists, effete soy boys, and castrating Karens. California, by the same token, makes the Black Hole of Calcutta look like a summer walk through daisies. Its violence is only surpassed by its medieval public sanitation. Its airhead groupthink only beat by its Cuba on the Pacific political climate. So Republican spin doctors using the duo to make points with Americans is a solid plan.

FNC: “A pro-GOP outside group closely aligned with the Republican Governors Association (RGA) is launching an effort in three states against Democratic governors ‒ who could face challenging reelections next year ‒ over the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package being pushed by President Joe Biden. The new TV ads by State Solutions Inc., shared first with Fox News, will run in Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The governors in those states, all first-term governors – Janet Mills, Tim Walz and Tony Evers ‒ are up for reelection next year in races that may be extremely competitive. The ads spotlight an analysis by House Budget Committee Republicans, which estimates that the bill, which conservatives call the ‘Biden’s Blue State Bailout,’ will cut $155 million from Maine, $805 million from Minnesota and $265 million from Wisconsin — while giving billions in new funding to California and New York, large states controlled by Democrats. The ads, tailored to each of the three states, ask the Democratic governors and senators in those states to ‘stand up’ for their constituents ‘and oppose the California and New York bailout bill.’ ”

“The people need to demand their governors and senators do what is best for their state and stand up to their party bosses in D.C.,” State Solutions president Dave Rexrode told press. He said “taxpayers will be on the hook for this latest COVID package, and now their states will lose millions in COVID relief if these Democrats refuse to stand up to Biden and Pelosi. Families and businesses are already struggling because of COVID, and they are set to face even more challenges if their Governors and Senators don’t take a stand against Biden’s Blue State Bailout.”

Chuck Schumer disagrees. “Funding to keep teachers, firefighters, transit workers, first responders in red states and blue on the job – not a liberal wish list. An American wish list. So many of the people affected by this bill are not liberals or Democrats. They may be Republicans, they may be independents, they may be conservatives. But they’re Americans who want some help to get out of this morass.”

But his nemesis had the last word. “They want to send wheelbarrows of cash to state and local bureaucrats to bail out mismanagement from before the pandemic,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday. “They’re changing the previous bipartisan funding formula in ways that will especially bias the money toward big blue states.”