With the symbolic passing of a golden bear pin, Democratic businessman Stephen Cloobeck announced Monday evening that he was bowing out of the governor\u2019s race and throwing his support behind noted Trump critic and close friend Rep. Eric Swalwell.<\/p>\n
Cloobeck shared this news while appearing alongside Swallwell on CNN,<\/a> saying that the San Francisco Bay Area Democrat will be the \u201cgreatest leader of this great state California.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy to say tonight that I\u2019m going to merge my campaign into his and give him all the hard work that I\u2019ve worked on,\u201d said Cloobeck.<\/p>\n The announcement puts an end to the entrepreneur and philanthropist\u2019s first-ever political campaign, which he funded, in part, through a fortune amassed in the real estate industry. In a recent poll co-sponsored by The Times, Cloobeck received less than half of 1% of the support of registered voters polled.<\/p>\n Cloobeck said he had launched his run because he could not find a single qualified candidate \u2014 that was until Swalwell tossed his hat into the ring<\/a> last week, sending an infusion of energy into the relatively sleepy race.<\/p>\n Pin now affixed to the lapel of his navy blue suit, Swalwell thanked his pal for the support and said he was looking forward to drawing on Cloobeck\u2019s expertise as he worked to bring more housing and small business to the Golden State.<\/p>\n Swalwell, a former Republican who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has said he is seeking the governorship to combat the threats President Trump poses to the state and to increase housing affordability and homeownership for Californians. <\/p>\n During his Monday evening interview, Swalwell doubled down on his proposal to implement a vote-by-phone system, despite the sharp criticism it invoked from the White House<\/a> and two of his Republican challengers for governor, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco<\/a> and conservative political commentator Steve Hilton<\/a>. <\/p>\n Swalwell said the proposal would make democracy more accessible, contending that if phones are secure enough to access finances and healthcare records, then they can be made secure enough to cast a ballot.<\/p>\n The backing of Cloobeck, a major Democratic donor, is good news for the congressman, who seeks to make a splash in an unusually wide open race to lead the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy and the country\u2019s most populous state. <\/p>\n About 44% of registered voters said in late October they did not have a preferred candidate<\/a> for governor. The recent decisions of former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> and Sen. Alex Padilla<\/a> to opt out of the running further solidified that the state\u2019s top job is anyone\u2019s to win. <\/p>\n Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the symbolic passing of a golden bear pin, Democratic businessman Stephen Cloobeck announced Monday evening that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4189,943,15053,37113,40774,4028,40776,100,40773,4975,40772,40775,35463,4190,38105],"class_list":{"0":"post-68812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-golden-state","12":"tag-governor","13":"tag-gubernatorial-campaign","14":"tag-gubernatorial-race","15":"tag-homeownership","16":"tag-monday-evening","17":"tag-navy-blue-suit","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-philanthropist","20":"tag-proposal","21":"tag-rep-eric-swalwell","22":"tag-sleepy-race","23":"tag-stephen-cloobeck","24":"tag-support","25":"tag-swalwell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68812","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=68812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}