Presented by Pharma.

Hey, good morning, Playbookers.

I'm Rogumonovalin.

It's Wednesday.

On today's show, the growing divide between Washington Democrats and Dem governors on masking.

This is your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

Top Democratic officials across the country are relaxing mask mandates. As Omicron recedes and concern rises about how masking is affecting school children.

The shift among Democrats sped up on Monday when a bipartisan group of governors meeting with President Joe Biden told him they wanted a return to a greater state of normality and to move beyond the pandemic.

A parade of Democratic governors in charge of some of the bluest states, including New

Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Oregon, and California quickly announced the lifting of mask

restrictions.

New York Governor Kathy Hogle will reportedly do so today.

In California, Governor Newsom lifted the indoor mask mandate. Though, as Politico's

Jeremy B. White and his colleagues noted in California playbook, quote, America's most populous state

continues to embrace a strange set of rules, including dictating that kids must cover their faces

in the classroom. But they also add this note about the quickly changing politics. Quote,

in an uncanny coincidence, the statewide mask mandate is said to expire on the same day as the San Francisco School Board recall election, which was spurred in part by anger over school closures.

In Virginia, where new GOP Governor Glenn Yunkin has been fighting to end masking in schools, there was a major political turning point on the issue Tuesday. 10 of the 21 Democrats in the state Senate joined their Republican colleagues

to pass a bill that bans local school boards from implementing school mask mandates.

It's expected to be signed into law soon.

The Biden administration is not following the shift of dem leaders in the states.

CDC director Rochelle Walenski told Reuters on Tuesday that,

...