Originally published at: Democrats on Track to Avoid Being Locked out of Power in California Governor’s Race - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Democrats seem to have avoided the nightmare scenario in California: with just under 60 percent of the vote in, only one Republican is currently poised to make it to the general election. Just a couple months ago, the two Republican candidates in the race were polling first and second, threatening a Democratic lockout. In California’s…
The 2 R scenario evaporated when Salwell dropped out. But lazy “horserace” reporting made it seem as if it were still a thing and Becerra’s campaign was happy enough to advance that narrative. Truly tactical voters would have voted for Steyer in an effort to shut out Hilton.
Meh. I voted for Porter.
4 Likes
Once again, Trump steps on a rake. His endorsement of Fox “News” blowhard Hilton backfired.
Lol
5 Likes
O/T but Fox is learning!!! 
Hannity slaps lengthy disclaimer after 90-minute conspiracy-riddled chat with Todd Blanche
Fox News host Sean Hannity ended Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, “Hang Out with Sean Hannity,” with a disclaimer that some political analysts flagged as “notable.”
The 90-minute episode featured an interview with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that spanned several conspiracy theories about alleged Democratic conspiracies to charge President Donald Trump with crimes. The allegations became so caustic that producers felt the need to slap a disclaimer at the end of the video before it was published on YouTube.
“John Brennan, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Matthew Colangelo, Arthur Engoron and James Clapper have not been charged with any crimes in connection with any alleged conspiracy,'” the disclaimer reads in part. “Charges against James Comey related to alleged false statements and obstruction have been dismissed. There have been no findings that Rod Rosenstein, Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom or Jacob Frey engaged in professional misconduct.”
2 Likes
Kiss of death … any least here in CA. Not that Hilton would ever have a chance against a Democrat like Becerra.
3 Likes
Ranked-choice voting seems like an obvious fix for this problem.
4 Likes
Why did you throw your vote away voting for a candidate polling at 4%? I absolutely hate the jungle primary system because it splinters votes but it seems particularly unstrategic to vote for candidates with no chance of finishing in the top 3. I would not vote for Steyer because I did not want D’s to waste hundreds of millions on a race that Becerra will win without spending much. Perhaps that cost savings will be ameliorated by the Hilton coat tail effect for down ballot R congressional candidates but I think having an already decided governor’s race in which R’s are forced to spend money on a no chance of winning candidate like Hilton is a net positive for D’s.
3 Likes
This is not actually any news. It has been clear for a couple of months that the top two vote-getters would not be two Republicans when Bianco fell well behind two Democrats. There was some uncertainty for awhile whether Steyer or Becerra would lead, but Becerra has been the clear leader for awhile.
The pro-Trump LA Times headlined its piece some hours ago on the Governor’s nomination with “Hilton leads for governor” which is no more than mildly interesting since him being shut out never seemed likely.
2 Likes
Some notes on the California primary.
- Jungle primary is stupid without a rank choice option- why are we forcing voters to cancel their own votes by voting for candidates with no chance of moving into the top 2 election. This system must be reformed by Democrats in the next legislative session.
- Steyer needs to start giving hundreds of millions to climate initiatives rather than paying Instragram influencers to bash fellow Democrats.
- Why did Tom Steyer plant that sloppy French kiss on the MAGA racist Proud Boy ballot stealing Chad Bianco at the end of the first debate? That was the moment I knew I couldn’t vote for Steyer. So much financial privilege, so little political acumen.
- Katie Porter may never get elected to anything again- which is a pity given her demonstrated capacity as HoR member.
- Becerra is boring AF- in both senses of AF- but he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act 30 years ago & opposed the Iraq War Resolution. He was cool before it was cool. GO XB
7 Likes
Please - give us all more boring, and competent!!!
6 Likes
California is a huge state with a lot of voters. That is why the vote count takes so long. People complain about it as though there is something wrong with the way votes are counted.
2 Likes
I was born and lived in SoCal for 50 years and never bought into the the 2R scenario. Though it can never be completely ruled out because they/we elected the Terminator, and that was just plain embarrassing. If it was encouraged by Dem leadership in an attempt to coalesce support around a single candidate, it’s hard to see which one they picked. My guess is that the leadership was supporting Steyer.
1 Like
Killing the inanity that is a jungle primary is a better fix.
The idea behind the jungle primary was that it would favor moderate candidates who could draw independent and party crossover voters. California could look to its own history of open primaries to know that this idea was certainly nonsense–in separate party primaries open voting leads to strategic voting–gaming the system by voting in the opposite primary to advance the weakest candidate to the general election. It also led to what can only accurately described as ratfuckery. In 1959 the open primary with cross-filing was eliminated in favor of closed primary elections.
If the goal of primary elections is to allow parties to nominate their preferred candidates to the general elections, the jungle primary system is an obvious failure. Ranked choice voting won’t improve that. If the goal of the jungle primary was to reduce or eliminate partisan influence on candidates, the jungle primary has failed at that, too. It’s time to return to closed partisan primaries, perhaps allowing non-aligned voters to choose which party’s primary they want to vote in.
I hope Becerra does a good job as governor of California.
2 Likes
The Governator was elected in a jungle recall election. He won re-election as an incumbent. The lesson there is, “never underestimate the power of incumbency.” The Governator is the only Republican to win the Governor’s mansion since Pete Wilson and the GOP death-wish Prop 187.
1 Like
Porter sure caught it for being rude while female.
1 Like
“But that sure didn’t stop us from publishing Blanche’s phony claims,” they continued.
The reason we currently have the jungle primary is Proposition 14 passed by 54% of the vote in 2010. This proposition was written by Abel Maldonado, the last Republican to serve as California’s Lieutenant Governor.
It was not some “good government” or “liberal reform” or a plan to favor moderate candidates but a scheme by Republicans to mix things up a bit since there was no prospect they would ever again hold the Governorship.
They were hoping for luck like this year, where two Republicans with maybe 30% of the vote between them shut out a list of competing Democrats.
Came close to working. Needs to be deep-sixed.
4 Likes
Thanks for the lesson–this is the sort of nuance I can’t follow easily from 2/3 of the way across the continent.
I wonder if this was a lesson the Republics learned when Ahnold managed to snatch the Governorship in the Gray Davis recall. That was a jungle election, too and Ahnold finished on the top of the heap.
In any event, it needs to go. At this point, I’d say to just restore the status quo ante and then figure what primary elections are supposed to accomplish. Once you’ve figured that out, write an election statute that accomplishes that goal.
closed primaries + ranked choice in both primaries and general elections is the sane choice (see, e.g., Australia)
1 Like
It’s a sane choice. It’s one I’d probably support, but it’s not the only sane choice.