First, Newsom remained silent during the strike allowing it to continue and for UC to be responsible for dealing with it. That stance put his cred with organized labor at some risk. Although he is an ex officio Regent and could have intervened in that capacity (as he did in the Big Ten issue), he stayed away from Regents meetings. Unlike the other UC Regents - who also remained silent - Newsom is still an active politician who will be termed out when he completes his current term. He has been acting like a presidential candidate and, in any case, has to be thinking about his next step.
Second, Newsom is about to present a budget for fiscal year 2023-24 and has been signaling that due to economic uncertainties, he is not in a mood to be generous. A costly settlement allowed at UC might have been seen as a green light for other state-level public unions that will be negotiating contracts.
So, it appears that Newsom has been thinking kindly of Steinberg. From Politico:
Gov. Gavin Newsom is vetting Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg for a judicial post, an appointment that could prompt a special election for the leader of California’s capital city. The California State Bar emailed confidential questionnaires to several members last week asking them to evaluate Steinberg, a Democrat, as part of the official state vetting process for judicial nominees. According to the email obtained by POLITICO, Newsom is considering Steinberg for the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento...
Full story at https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/27/gavin-newsom-darrell-sreinberg-judicial-vetting-00075635.
Another story in this vein from the Sacramento Bee suggests that the nomination is really a bench-warmer for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court, should one become available.* Virtue may be its own reward, but in politics something more tangible is expected.
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*https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article270516982.html.
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https://ia904700.us.archive.org/34/items/new-year-outlook/steinberg%20newsom.mp3
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