{"id":237994,"date":"2026-03-26T20:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237994\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:04:07","slug":"yes-a-republican-could-be-next-governor-of-california-and-a-recall-would-begin-immediately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237994\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, a Republican could be next governor of California. And a recall would begin immediately"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once upon a time in California, I went to the Orange County fairgrounds to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger give the signal for a wrecking ball to drop onto a vehicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The audience went wild, and Schwarzenegger went on to become governor and deliver on his promise to roll back a car tax increase<\/a>, thereby blowing a $4-billion hole in the state budget.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s fair to say that in the current gubernatorial campaign season, the excitement level is several decibels below what we experienced in 2003. But once again, it\u2019s fair to say we\u2019ve not seen anything quite like this year\u2019s derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no historical precedent in modern California history for a governor\u2019s race with such a large field or such an amorphous field of candidates,\u201d said longtime political observer Dan Schnur. \u201cUnless you\u2019re paying very close attention, it feels like a big multi-headed political blob.\u201d<\/p>\n

To break that down, eight Democrats and two Republicans are running<\/a> in the primary, and here\u2019s the craziest thing about that:<\/p>\n

The two Republicans could be the top two vote-getters<\/a> because the Democrats have arranged themselves into a circular firing squad. While the Dems scramble for votes in the June 2 primary, the two Republicans lead in the polls because they\u2019re splitting the GOP vote, and under the rules of the top-two primary, they could face off in the November election.<\/p>\n

That means that California, which is one of the bluest states in the country and has nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans, could end up with a Republican governor, which would be like having a Dodgers manager who wears a Yankees jersey in the dugout.<\/p>\n

And by the way, if it happens, the Republican would be able to shuffle regulatory boards, attempt to squeeze budgets and create a bit of chaos, but still not get much accomplished because of Democratic super-majorities in the Senate and Assembly.<\/p>\n

And he would be targeted for recall even before he takes office. (More on that in a minute.)<\/p>\n

There is a way for the Democrats to avoid this humiliation, but they can\u2019t seem to agree on anything at the moment. Party leaders have all but asked the candidates at the bottom of the polls to bow out, but understandably the response has been, \u201cWhy me? I\u2019m no worse than the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC decided to host a debate night, a simple enough proposition, but then flubbed the deal by leaving four candidates off the invitation list \u2014 four candidates of color. A kerfuffle followed, and the debate was dumped<\/a>, and an attempt to let everyone into the party fell apart.<\/p>\n

So now what?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible the Dems will huddle around one or two candidates who then move up in the polls and remove the threat of the unthinkable \u2014 two Republicans head-to-head. That would be Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco going against former Fox TV host Steve Hilton.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible the Dems will play dirty and either spend money to promote one of the two Republican candidates or torpedo one of them. All they want, at the moment, is for a Democrat to make it past the primary, because that would all but ensure victory in November, given voter registration advantages.<\/p>\n

And then, if that doesn\u2019t work, there\u2019s the recall scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could shut it down probably within five or six months,\u201d said Mike Madrid, a longtime California GOP political consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would surely happen,\u201d said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who helped Schwarzenegger knock Gov. Gray Davis out of office, and take his job, in the 2003 recall.<\/p>\n

A wealthy Democratic donor could bankroll the recall campaign, Stutzman said. Or public employee unions might put up the money, given that a Republican winner is likely to create a state version of Elon Musk\u2019s ham-handed attempt to fire nearly everyone on the federal payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pitch,\u201d Stutzman said of the recall strategy in an email, would be that \u201cTrump still looms and CA must resist, and a GOP gov is a fluke of weird election law. Difficult to imagine it wouldn\u2019t succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought of one more approach the Democrats could use to make sure at least one of them is on the ballot in November. Tom Steyer, a leader for many years on one of the most critical issues in California and the world, climate change, has already spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads that run about every two minutes, promoting him as the best candidate for governor.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re so repetitious, you can\u2019t help but tune them out.<\/p>\n

But everyone would pay close attention if Steyer instead ran ads offering incentives for either Bianco or Hilton to leave the state. Steyer could offer $10 million cash for Bianco to move to Hawaii, and maybe throw in a beach house. He could buy a private jet for Hilton to take him back to his native Britain. Every day, there could be new ads upping the ante until one of them leaves the Golden State.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t that be a better use of Steyer\u2019s money? It might even get him elected.<\/p>\n

To be honest, having some honest pushback against Democratic authority in California wouldn\u2019t be a terrible thing. It\u2019s not as if Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats are winning the battle against homelessness, housing shortages, affordability and other big challenges, and voters understandably want more \u2014 way more \u2014 for their tax dollars.<\/p>\n

An experienced, no-nonsense, sensible, fiscally conservative GOP candidate would do the state good.<\/p>\n

The problem is that the two Republicans in the running, Bianco and Hilton, are Trump toadies.<\/p>\n

In an embarrassingly amateurish political stunt, Bianco blew the president a kiss and all but begged for an endorsement by seizing 650,000 ballots<\/a> from last November\u2019s election to determine whether they were fraudulently counted.<\/p>\n

Hilton recently said in an interview with ABC\u2019s Eyewitness News 7 that he believes \u201ceverybody supports<\/a>\u201d Trump\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n

Hilton might have missed the news that U.S.-born residents are carrying their passports in case they\u2019re targeted by skin color. That Californians by the thousands have joined the resistance. That despite claims, most deportees don\u2019t have criminal records. And that even some of the state\u2019s GOP lawmakers have begged Trump to stop raiding industries that rely on immigrant help (and are often owned by Republicans).<\/p>\n

And by the way, is this a smart time for a GOP candidate in California to be doing his best Trump impression?<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s popularity is down, consumer prices are up, he\u2019s shamelessly pardoned drug lords and Jan. 6 barbarians, he thinks the presidency is a game of Battleship after promising to keep us out of wars, gas prices are sky high, he just said he was glad that Vietnam War hero and former FBI Director Robert Mueller had died, and he\u2019s playing golf all day as if everything\u2019s hunky dory.<\/p>\n

Like I said, there\u2019s not a big-name character like Schwarzenegger in the race, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t good options. If you like Bianco or Hilton, so be it. Otherwise I suggest you read up on the other eight:<\/p>\n

Steyer, Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former L.A. Mayor and legislative leader Antonio Villaraigosa, former Rep. Katie Porter, former state attorney general and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former State Controller Betty Yee, San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan, and U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell.<\/p>\n

And you better act fast.<\/p>\n

The primary is less than 10 weeks away.<\/p>\n

steve.lopez@latimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once upon a time in California, I went to the Orange County fairgrounds to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4302,16854,27535,7,9,8,13540,1751,943,8642,73547,8849,1748,90355,25299,1519,8843],"class_list":["post-237994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-arnold-schwarzenegger","tag-bianco","tag-blue-state","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-candidate","tag-democrats","tag-governor","tag-hilton","tag-primary","tag-recall","tag-republicans","tag-rob-stutzman","tag-tom-steyer","tag-trump","tag-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}