Pity poor California.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the eye-watering price of gasoline<\/a>, the absurd cost of housing, the rising price of utilities and groceries<\/a>, the Trump-led assault on the state\u2019s immigrant population<\/a> and his attack on California\u2019s long-cherished values <\/a>of tolerance and diversity.<\/p>\n No, on top of all that voters have been subjected to \u2014 the horror! \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Where are the A-listers<\/a>? Where are the lights? The cameras? The action?<\/p>\n That, anyway, is the perspective one gets reading a certain genre of campaign dispatch<\/a>, written from the perspective that all of California, Land of Reagan and Schwarzenegger<\/a>, home to Hollywood<\/a> and Silicon Valley<\/a>, incubator of the Next Big Thing, is a stage. Woe unto those who fail to entertain, animate or amuse.<\/p>\n The fact that those dreary assessments have very little to do with the actual wants and needs<\/a> of the vast majority of Californians \u2014 not to mention the state\u2019s history of electing mostly dull and drab governors<\/a> \u2014 should give their authors pause. <\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Contra all the stifled yawns and thinly veiled condescension, the contest \u2014 now in its final stretch \u2014 is the most compelling<\/a> California gubernatorial campaign in decades. And not just because one of the leading contestants torched himself and his political livelihood<\/a> in a bonfire of hubris and stupidity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Come November, voters could elect the first female governor in state history<\/a>, or possibly the first Latino governor in more than 150 years. (They might also install California\u2019s first billionaire governor<\/a>, a considerably less uplifting and monumental achievement, but historic nonetheless.)<\/p>\n Depending on the result, the election could also solidify a notable shift in California\u2019s political power balance, from the long-reigning San Francisco Bay Area <\/a>(think Govs. Jerry Brown<\/a>, Gavin Newsom <\/a>and U.S. Sens. Alan Cranston<\/a>, Dianne Feinstein<\/a> and Barbara Boxer<\/a>) to Southern California (think Sens. Adam Schiff<\/a>, Alex Padilla<\/a> and, possibly, Gov. Xavier Becerra<\/a> or Katie Porter<\/a>.)<\/p>\n True, there\u2019s no pyrotechnic personality in the expansive field of gubernatorial hopefuls. But this is no group of slouches.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the resumes of these people. There\u2019s nothing embarrassing,\u201d said Jim Newton<\/a>, a UCLA historian who\u2019s written a shelf-load of biographies of Californians as disparate as Earl Warren<\/a> and Jerry Garcia<\/a>. The contenders, he noted, include a former state attorney general and Biden Cabinet member<\/a>, a high-profile ex-congresswoman<\/a>, the aforementioned hedge-fund billionaire<\/a> and men with experience running<\/a> two of the state\u2019s most populous cities<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty good range of backgrounds in candidates for governor.\u201d<\/p>\n With no glitz, no glamour, what\u2019s 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 guide <\/a>or the flood of TV ads and campaign mailers that inundate the state every two years.<\/p>\n In truth, the Hollywood stars elevated to the governorship, Ronald Reagan <\/a>and Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>, have been the exception \u2014 spaced nearly four decades apart \u2014 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<\/a> of an enormously unpopular governor. <\/p>\n Far more typical are the likes of George Deukmejian<\/a>, Pete Wilson<\/a> and Gray Davis<\/a>. Each was a career politician who spent decades laboriously climbing the government rungs before being elected governor. Collectively, they were featured on the cover of People magazine<\/a> precisely zero times.<\/p>\n The three were, to use Newton\u2019s description, \u201cmainstream, politically tested, not flashy.\u201d Which also happens to describe several of those currently aspiring to be governor.<\/p>\n Drab, but true.<\/p>\n Boring as it may seem, most Californians want someone who\u2019ll focus on their workaday concerns, not jollification<\/a>. For all the talk of the \u201cattention economy<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the hearts and minds won by jokey memes, viral videos and other snackable morsels on social media <\/a>\u2014 voters are much more focused on the real economy, which is to say putting food on their table, maintaining a roof over their head and keeping their car fueled and home at a bearable temperature<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not virtual reality,\u201d said Mike Madrid, a longtime California Republican strategist <\/a>and one of the state\u2019s most astute political observers<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s reality reality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat may not be interesting to the punditry and the East Coast,\u201d Madrid went on, \u201cbut it still matters. Reality still matters. The performative nature that has dominated our discourse for 10 years in the Trump era is fading away.\u201d<\/p>\n Imagine, for a moment, if former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> had jumped into the governor\u2019s 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. That would have been boring. <\/p>\n In Harris\u2019 absence,<\/a> the sprawling field of candidates<\/a> has been a good and healthy thing, yielding the most competitive California gubernatorial contest in a quarter century. Fears of a Democratic shutout <\/a>in June\u2019s top-two primary and a fluky Republican being elected <\/a>\u2014 which were always overwrought \u2014 have faded dramatically. Even if they hadn\u2019t, would it really be better for politicians in Sacramento and Washington to anoint the Democratic favorite and cut voters out of the equation?<\/p>\n (While we\u2019re busting myths, another is the fanciful notion that the state party or Democratic grandees like Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, Gavin Newsom<\/a>, Jerry or Willie Brown<\/a> could have cleared the field <\/a>with just a phone call or two.)<\/p>\n This wide-open fight for governor may not be boffo entertainment or dazzling <\/a>to those looking in from the outside, but it\u2019s absorbing nonetheless. It\u2019s destined to be remembered as one of the most volatile and surprising political contests<\/a> modern-day California has ever seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pity poor California. It\u2019s not just the eye-watering price of gasoline, the absurd cost of housing, the rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4488,129750,9747,129749,129751,129753,11053,2211,9826,25297,225,129752,1522,72],"class_list":["post-308842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-californians","tag-d-list-candidate","tag-decade","tag-drab-governor","tag-expansive-field","tag-first-female-governor","tag-november","tag-race","tag-reagan","tag-schwarzenegger","tag-state","tag-u-s-sens","tag-voter","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308842","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=308842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}