Five of the eight Democratic candidates for governor debate policy at the NUHW Governor Candidate Forum last year in Los Angeles. The field lacks a clear front runner less than three months ahead of California’s June 2 primary. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Carlin Stiehl
TNS
The California Democratic Party is launching a new series of near-weekly polls of the wide-open, top-two June 2 primary for governor.
In a virtual news conference Tuesday, party Chair Rusty Hicks connected the surveys, which will be released from March 24 through early May, to his push to winnow the field of eight candidates to a smaller field. He said in an ideal world, there would only be one Democrat running for governor, but barring that, declined to specify how many candidates he’d like to see in the primary . Hicks and some Democrats are worried California’s jungle primary and the lack of a Democratic frontrunner could allow two Republicans to advance to the general election.
Hicks said the surveys, which will occur every seven to 10 days, were meant to give candidates, voters and the press a snapshot of the campaigns’ viability. The former union leader said it was not his intent to shame low-polling candidates.
“I would simply say if people are afraid of information, you have to ask why,” Hicks said.
A February Public Policy Institute of California poll found three Democrats — former Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin and billionaire Tom Steyer — were effectively tied with Republicans Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Six Democrats polled at 5% or less.
Last week, Hicks wrote a letter urging candidates to assess whether they had a real shot at winning the primary ahead of the March 6 filing deadline. The lower-polling Democrats reacted with defiance; all but one filed paperwork to officially declare their candidacy. Former Assembly majority leader Ian Calderon dropped out of the race Thursday and endorsed Swalwell.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who is Black, suggested the move targeted nonwhite candidates. Several others accused the state party of attempting to predetermine who advanced to the primary.
On Tuesday, Hicks said his letter spoke for itself.
“I’m not and was not under any illusion that an open letter was going to be sent and so everybody was going to head for the hills, pack it up, walk away,” Hicks told reporters Tuesday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, have so far declined to endorse a candidate.
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Ben Paviour is the California political power reporter for The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Bureau. He previously covered Virginia state politics for public radio and was a local investigations fellow at The New York Times. He got his start in journalism at the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. Before becoming a reporter, he worked in local government and tech in the Bay Area.