Californians hoping for Sen. Alex Padilla to save them from the prospect of Gov. Katie Porter were certainly disappointed on Tuesday.
During a news conference, the senator made official his decision to sit-out the 2026 gubernatorial race and to stay focused on his responsibilities in the United States Senate.
“And so it is with a full heart and even more commitment than ever that I am choosing to not run for a governor of California next year,” Padilla said. “I choose not just to stay in the Senate, I choose to stay in this fight. Because the Constitution is worth fighting for. Our fundamental rights are worth fighting for. Our core values are worth fighting for. The American dream is worth fighting for.”
Padilla, who previously served on the Los Angeles City Council, as a state senator in Sacramento and as secretary of state of California, was widely seen as a potential field-clearer if he chose to jump into the race for governor. But considering he was just elected to a full six-year Senate term in 2022, Padilla no doubt realized being a senator is much less of a headache than being governor of California. Who could blame him?
With Padilla and former Vice President Kamala Harris out, that leaves us with the current crop of candidates and a couple of lingering maybes.
On Friday, Nov. 7, polling from the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley confirmed that former Orange County Rep. and failed U.S. Senate candidate Katie Porter did serious damage to her political prospects with her recent outburst during an interview with CBS News reporter Julie Watts.
While the Berkeley IGS poll found Porter in the lead in August with 17% of the vote, her support has now plummeted to 11%, putting her in second place.
In first place is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, with 13%, up from 10% in August.
Former United States secretary of health and human services Xavier Becerra stood at 8% along with Republican pundit Steve Hilton.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came in at 5%. Everyone else, from former Controller Betty Yee, current state Superintendent Tony Thurmond and the unannounced potential candidates Rick Caruso and Tom Steyer got 3% or less support.
With Caruso and Steyer choosing to throw their own money in support of the Proposition 50 campaign, it seems obvious they are angling for something. But neither of them have announced anything yet and it’s not obvious either of them could clear the field if they did choose to run.
In the meantime, the Villaraigosa campaign has launched attacks on both Porter and Becerra. His most recent ad on Becerra took aim at his handling of the child migrant crisis under President Biden and calls him “not fit to be governor.”
Meanwhile, the Becerra campaign has declared him “the most viable Democratic alternative to embattled Katie Porter” and touts his record “holding the Trump Administration accountable.”
Yee, meanwhile, has chosen to tack left, saying in a recent interview, “I think transgender athletes are women athletes and they should be able to compete.”
Needless to say, this editorial board isn’t particularly impressed with the field of candidates so far.
Katie Porter can’t handle a follow-up question.
Bianco is a deputy union puppet with the worst crime-solving rate among sheriffs in the state.
Hilton is a talking head with no record to speak of.
Becerra covered for dirty cops in California as state AG and then fumbled in the Biden Cabinet.
Villaraigosa gets kudos for sticking up for school choice, but even he thinks the bullet train is a good idea.
Yee dragged her feet on fiscal transparency as controller.
Thurmond supports gutting taxpayer protections and was nowhere to be seen during the coronavirus pandemic as kids suffered learning loss.
Not exactly an inspiring field. Tom Steyer will certainly be a dud even with Democratic voters. Which leaves Rick Caruso, who has annoyed many with his strategy of burning money in an act of forgiveness for having been a Republican. But even so, he’s probably the most compelling potential option.