Paucity Of Good Candidates Running For Governor Of California Says A Lot About The State's Democrats

Good News: They're Still Not As Bad As Republicans

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The one time I met Gavin Newsom (2010— he was still running for governor, not lieutenant governor yet) I was impressed with how sharp and well-informed he was… less impressed with how smarmy and neo-liberal he came across. I’ve never voted for him for anything and I’m sure I never will. I’m glad he’s leaving office, concerned he’s running for president and not thrilled about the likeliest candidates to replace him in Sacramento. So far the declared candidates are Betty Yee, Katie Porter (but only if Kamala doesn’t run), Big Oil candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, Toni Atkins, Xavier Becerra, Tony Thurmond and random rich people Eleni Kounalakis, Stephen Cloobeck and Rick Caruso. And then there’s the elephant almost in the room, Kamala, who says she’ll make a decision by late summer. Presumably, if she decides to run, several others besides Porter will drop out.

I never voted for Kamala either— not when she ran for attorney general, senator, vice president or president— nor would I ever. Nothing more than a craven careerist, she’s demonstrably awful... and I haven’t played the lesser of two evils game since 2008, since I’ve come to see how it does as much harm than good. You know who is rooting for her to run for governor  though? The Republican Party, at least according to reporting from Jeremy White. Since Republicans don’t have any chance to win anyway, the GOP wants a high-profile, much disliked adversary to gin up contributions to the party and energize right-wing voters for down ballot races, especially for vulnerable House incumbents David Valadao, Young Kim, Ken Calvert and Kevin Kiley. Without Trump on the ballot— and with the national party largely ignoring California— the statewide GOP turnout in likely to be closer to 2022’s 4.2 million than 2024’s 6.1 million. Let’s look how that played out in CA-22 for example. In 2024 Valadao narrowly kept his seat with 89,484 votes. In 2022 he also narrowly kept his seat— against the same worthless Blue Dog, Rudy Salas— but with just 52,994 votes. Trump on the ballot probably saved Valadao’s seat, ironic since Valadao voted to impeach Trump after the insurrection. And it was the same for Calvert. In 2022 he kept his seat 123,869 against Blue Dog Will Rollins. But, running against Rollins again in 2024, Calvert took 183,216 votes. Neither Valadao nor Calvert persuaded Democrats or independents to vote for them in 2024; the MAGA-GOP base turned out because of Trump.

“In interviews, fundraising emails, and remarks to voters,” wrote White, Republicans “are acting as if Harris is already in the ring. Conservative pundit Steve Hilton and firebrand Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco have launched campaigns focused on what they call failed Democratic governance— a point they’ve both hammered in Fox News appearances— and are holding up Harris as a prime example. Hilton told donors in a recent email appeal that Harris was ramping up to run, warning a Democratic ‘coronation’ would be disastrous for the state. He said in an interview that Harris ‘embodies the failures of the past. I sense that this is the best shot for someone to be elected statewide in California who’s not a Democrat for at least 20 years, and I think the evident reason for that is the failure of one-party rule,’ Hilton said. ‘The candidate who’s going to win in 2026, regardless of party label, is the change candidate. Kamala Harris is the one who least represents change.’”

Republicans who White spoke with feel that the gubernatorial race with Kamala would allow comparatively unknown Republicans to piggyback on the same attacks Trump leveled against her while energizing donors and generating Fox News coverage and, possibly, even attention from Trump. “There’s also the possibility a Harris candidacy would lure Elon Musk out of his self-imposed hiatus from political giving, helping to erase Republicans’ fundraising deficit. Musk has heaped disdain on Harris, who last month jabbed at Musk’s failed intervention in a Wisconsin judge race.” Musk may be politically naive, but he’s not that politically naive.

Gay MAGA psycho Richard Grenell says he he’d jump into the race if Kamala runs and he’s popular with the MAGA fringe. “Bianco,” wrote White “said he’d ‘jump for joy’ at the opportunity to spotlight what he called Harris’ abysmal record on criminal justice… Harris would still bring formidable advantages: near-universal name recognition, an enormous war chest, and the ability to consolidate support from California’s political elites. She could also clear the field of most Democratic rivals, making it more likely she romps to a lopsided general election win against a Republican after a primary in which the top two vote-getters advance, regardless of party… ‘If she’s beatable (and if she runs) it won’t be by a Republican,’ Democratic political consultant Dan Newman, who worked with Harris’ California-based political consultants, said in a text message. ‘For now at least, Republicans can’t win statewide.’”

Former California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson acknowledged in an interview that it would be “an uphill battle” to break Democrats’ monopoly on statewide office. But, she said, Harris’ presence on the ticket could activate Republican donors who would otherwise see the race as a lost cause.

“We saw that in congressional races, that whoever was going to run against Speaker McCarthy or Nancy Pelosi or Devin Nunes, these were names that their opponents hated so much that they were able to raise an enormous amount of money,” Patterson said.

Several Republican political consultants and fundraisers echoed that point, saying Harris could galvanize Republican donors in California, who tend to direct their resources to more competitive states.

… Yet even if Harris runs and wins handily, Republicans argue they stand to benefit with months to assail Harris and amplify their broader message about the Democratic Party’s stumbles.

“She has a chance to be embarrassed even if she wins,” said Republican political consultant Kevin Spillane, who managed the campaign of Harris’ 2010 attorney general opponent. “It could be a pyrrhic victory.”

I'd happily vote for Katie Porter... and Betty Yee and Tony Thurmond seem pretty solid, but I expect in the end we're going to get stuck with Kamala. Are there any good Democratic governors anywhere? Please share.