California’s race for governor is the oddest one since 2003, when actor Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Gray Davis in a recall. Since then, it’s been an anointing, with Schwarzenegger winning a second term, and Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom each winning two terms. This year, it’s an open field. There’s even a path for two Republicans to make it into the general election as Democrats split between multiple B-listers while Republicans are split by two main choices.
To avoid that latter scenario, Democrats and their allied interest groups have frantically scurried to coalesce around one candidate. Their effort to rally behind Congressman Eric Swalwell collapsed after he faced several serious allegations of sexual misconduct, leading him to not only drop out of the governor’s race but to resign from Congress.
That focused attention on billionaire former hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, who has dropped $120 million pitching his “tax me more” message along with his environmentalist platform. At a time when billionaires are bogeymen, Steyer has struggled to gain momentum. Former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a progressive from Orange County, has struggled to overcome her unlikable reputation.
The race features some others who haven’t gained traction, such as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – a voice from a past era promising to correct the course of the state with a one-term pledge. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a new voice with a moderate reform agenda, hasn’t caught on either. The latest post-debate poll shows those two struggling 4%, Steyer with 15%, Porter with 9%. Republican former TV host Steve Hilton leads the pack with 16% and Riverside County’s GOP Sheriff Chad Bianco has 10%.
Former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and one-time California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is moving up quickly. He’s at 13%, as Democrats figure he might be the default establishment choice. We don’t blame Democrats for looking his way given the poor choices on the ballot, but Becerra inspires little confidence in his ability to run the state government. His federal stewardship at HHS was a bust, with the Wall Street Journal calling him “out of his depth.”
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His White House bosses had “grown increasingly frustrated … over his department’s sluggish effort to house thousands of unaccompanied minors” who had crossed the southern border during the administration’s refugee crisis, per Politico in 2021. He’s still struggling to explain a scandal involving allegations that his advisers pilfered $225,000 from his campaign account. There are no allegations of wrongdoing on his part, but his explanation – that it “happened outside of my vision” – doesn’t offer confidence in his management abilities.
We have long criticized his subservience to the state’s police unions as AG: “Becerra refused to follow a new law that requires the release of law-enforcement disciplinary records. Courts repeatedly rebuked him …. He even threatened legal action against reporters who had properly obtained some of those records from his office.” He relented, but that lack of transparency also was his hallmark in Washington, D.C. And, again, he’s ultimately an establishmentarian who regurgitates standard progressive policies.
California faces a bevy of financial and quality-of-life challenges and needs a government with the management skills and right ideas to put it on the path toward reform. We understand the Democrats’ political dilemma, but Becerra is the answer to a question nobody is asking.