What makes the California-New York sequence consequential is not that two governors resisted strong AI regulation — that was expected — but that both created successor legislation to absorb the political pressure. A bill that dies in a veto leaves advocates with a clear target. A bill that passes in weakened form closes the legislative window while generating press releases about action. Newsom's characterization of the weaker framework as a national template is the clearest signal that this is intentional positioning, not reluctant compromise. Colorado's ongoing [rewrite of its own…