Pity poor California.
It’s not fair the eye-watering price of gasolinethe absurd cost of housing, the rising price of utilities and groceriesthe Trump-led assault on the state’s immigrant population and his attack on California’s long-cherished valuesof tolerance and diversity.
No, on top of all that voters have been subjected to — the horror! — a dull and drab gubernatorial campaign, burdened by a surfeit of C- and D-list candidates with all the electricity and elan of a tepid bath.
Where are the A-listers? Where are the lights? The cameras? The action?
That, anyway, is the perspective one gets reading a certain genre of campaign dispatchwritten from the perspective that all of California, Land of Reagan and Schwarzeneggerhome to hollywood and Silicon Valleyincubator of the Next Big Thing, is a stage. Woe unto those who fail to entertain, animate or amuse.
The fact that those dreary assessments have very little to do with the current wants and needs of the vast majority of Californians — not to mention the state’s history of electing mostly dull and drab governors —should give their authors pause.
It hasn’t.
Against all the stifled yawns and thinly veiled condescension, the contest — now in its final stretch — is the most compelling California gubernatorial campaign in decades. And not just because one of the leading contestants torched himself and his political livelihood in a bonfire of hubris and stupidity.
Come November, voters could elect the first female governor in state historyor possibly the first Latino governor in more than 150 years. (They might also install California’s first billionaire governora considerably less uplifting and monumental achievement, but historic nonetheless.)
Depending on the result, the election could also solidify a notable shift in California’s political power balance, from the long-reigning San Francisco Bay Area(think Govs. Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsomand US Sens. Alan Cranston, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer) to Southern California (think Sen. Adam Schiff, Alex Padilla and, possibly, Gov. Xavier Becerra or Katie Porter.)
True, there’s no pyrotechnic personality in the expansive field of governmental hopefuls. But this is no group of slouches.
“Look at the resumes of these people. There’s nothing embarrassing,” he said Jim Newtona UCLA historian who’s written a shelf-load of biographies of Californians as nonsense as Earl Warren and Jerry Garcia. The contenders, he noted, include a former state attorney general and Biden Cabinet member, a high-profile ex-congresswoman, the aforementioned hedge-fund billionaire and men with experience running two of the state’s most populous cities. “That’s a pretty good range of backgrounds in candidates for governor.”
With no glitz, no glamour, what’s a star-seeking, celebrity-hungry voter to do? If you believe the stereotype, Californians take their political cues more from Variety and In Touch magazine than, say, their voter guideor the flood of TV ads and campaign mailers that flood the state every two years.
In truth, the Hollywood stars elevated to the governorship, Ronald Reaganand Arnold Schwarzeneggerhave been the exception — spaced nearly four decades apart — and far from the norm. Both political insurgents were elected under extraordinary circumstances. Reagan amid the tumult and tectonic fracturing of the 1960s Civil Rights and Free Speech movements. Schwarzenegger in an unprecedented, rapid-fire recall of an enormously unpopular governor.
Far more typical are the likes of George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis. Each was a career politician who spent decades laboriously climbing the government runs before being elected governor. Collectively, they were featured on the cover of People magazine precisely zero times.
The three were, to use Newton’s description, “mainstream, politically tested, not flashy.” Which also happens to describe several of those currently aspiring to be governor.
Drab, but true.
Boring as it may seem, most Californians want someone who’ll focus on their workaday concerns, not jollification. For all the talk of the “attention economy” — the hearts and minds won by jokey memes, viral videos and other snackable morsels on social media— voters are much more focused on the real economy, which is to say putting food on their table, keeping a roof over their head and keeping their car fueled and home at a bearable temperature.
“It’s not virtual reality,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime California Republican strategistand one of the state’s most astute political observers. “It’s reality reality.”
“That may not be interesting to the punditry and the East Coast,” Madrid went on, “but it still matters. Reality still matters. The performative nature that has dominated our discourse for 10 years in the Trump era is fading away.”
Imagine, for a moment, if former Vice President Kamala Harris had jumped into the governor’s race, as contemplated. The contest, for all intents, would have ended then and there, save for months of airy speculation on which Democrat or Republican would make the November runoff en route to eventual defeat. Thatit would have been boring.
In Harris’ absence, the sprawling field of candidates has been a good and healthy thing, yielding the most competitive California gubernatorial contest in a quarter century. Fears of a Democratic shutdownin June’s top-two primary and a fluky Republican being elected— which were always overwrought — have faded dramatically. Even if they hadn’t, would it really be better for politicians in Sacramento and Washington to anoint the Democratic favorite and cut voters out of the equation?
(While we’re busting myths, another is the fanciful notion that the state party or Democratic greats like Nancy Pelosi, Gavin NewsomJerry Or Willie Brown could have cleared the fieldwith just a phone call or two.)
This wide-open fight for governor may not be boffo entertainment or dazzlingto those looking in from the outside, but it’s absorbing nonetheless. It’s destined to be remembered as one of the most volatile and surprising political contests modern-day California has ever seen.
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