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’s 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’s history of electing mostly dull and drab governors<\/a> \u2014 should give their authors pause.<\/p>\n It hasn’t.<\/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 Read more: Barabak: Not too early, not too late. Here’s the sweet spot for voting in California<\/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’s 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’s 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’s no pyrotechnic personality in the expansive field of gubernatorial hopefuls. But this is no group of slouches.<\/p>\n “Look at the resumes of these people. There’s nothing embarrassing,” said Jim Newton<\/a>, a UCLA historian who’s 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’s most populous cities<\/a>. “That’s a pretty good range of backgrounds in candidates for governor.”<\/p>\n 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 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’s description, “mainstream, politically tested, not flashy.” 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’ll focus on their workaday concerns, not jollification<\/a>. For all the talk of the “attention economy<\/a>” \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 “It’s not virtual reality,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime California Republican strategist <\/a>and one of the state’s most astute political observers<\/a>. “It’s reality reality.”<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Read more: Armageddon! Fiasco! Disarray! Is California politics really a total disaster?<\/a><\/p>\n Imagine, for a moment, if former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> 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. That would have been boring.<\/p>\n In Harris’ 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’s top-two primary and a fluky Republican being elected <\/a>\u2014 which were always overwrought \u2014 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?<\/p>\n (While we’re 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’s absorbing nonetheless. It’s destined to be remembered as one of the most volatile and surprising political contests<\/a> modern-day California has ever seen.<\/p>\n Get the latest from Mark Z. Barabak
Focusing on politics out West, from the Golden Gate to the U.S. Capitol.
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