SAN FRANCISCO – It was speed dating: Eight applicants with less than four minutes each, gubernatorial nominees vying for thousands of Democratic Party loyalists.
California’s gubernatorial race was a low-key, late-stage affair, notable for its lack of anything notable.
That changed a bit on a sunny Saturday in San Francisco, where the competition was taking on the heat of the campaign – chanting crowds, supporters showing signs, call-and-response from the audience – as the state party held its annual meeting in these beautiful cities.
The guests had the opportunity to officially endorse the favorite of the party, giving a huge advantage to the competition with the obvious lack of any clear runner. But with a field packed with nine major Democratic contenders — San José Mayor Matt Mahan is said to have entered the race too late to be considered — the vote appeared to be a fluke.
Neither candidate came remotely close to achieving the required 60% support.
That left the contestants, sans Mahan, to give their best distillation of the whys and wherefores of their campaigns, in front of one of the most important and powerful audiences they will face between now and the June 2 primary.
There has been, unsurprisingly, plenty of Trump-bashing and plenty of talk of affordability, or rather, a surprising lack of it in these great states.
Candidates struggle to find their relevance, those all-important campaign currencies, by describing their hardscrabble experiences.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – the first speaker, as he was drawn – spoke about growing up in a home plagued by alcoholism and domestic violence. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond described his childhood of food stamps, free school lunches and leftover government cheese.
Former district manager Betty Yee told how she sleeps with her four siblings. Katie Porter, a single mother of three, said she knows what it’s like to push a grocery cart and put gas in her minivan and watch helplessly as prices “go up and up” while the dollars don’t add up enough.
Michele Reed of Los Angeles cheered at the state convention of the Democratic Party.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
When it came to criticizing Trump, the competition was equally fierce.
“His attacks on our schools, health care and his politics of fear and abuse must end now,” Villaraigosa said.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) called him “the worst president ever” and boasted about the anti-Trump battles he’s fought in Congress and in the courts. Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general, spoke about his success in suing the Trump administration.
Porter may have topped them all, at least in the use of profanity and props, by holding up one of his famous white boards and urging the crowd to join him in a chant of its inscription: “F—- Trump.”
“Together,” said the former Orange County mayor, “we’re going to kick Trump’s ass in November.”
Porter also went wild in his promises, promising to bring universal health care to California — a lifelong desire of the Democratic Alliance — free childcare, tuition-free public universities and the elimination of the federal income tax on those earning less than $100,000.
What is not clear is how, precisely, the captive state will pay the money.
Former Assemblyman Ian Calderon offered a modest promise to provide free child care for families making less than $100,000 a year and to dismantle PG&E, California’s largest utility, “and literally bring power back to California.” (Another impossibility.)
Becerra, in short, said he was “not running on big promises” but rather his record as a member of Congress, former attorney general and secretary of health in President Biden’s cabinet.
Rachel Pickering, right, vice chairwoman of the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party, stands with others wearing pins supporting Democratic causes at the party’s state convention.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
It was one of many songs that could be heard if one listened closely enough. (Neither candidate called the other by name.) “You wouldn’t vote for a Democrat who voted for a border wall, would you?” Thurmond sought, Porter who supported a major funding bill that included money for Trump’s pet project.
“You wouldn’t vote for a Democrat who praises ICE, would you?” Thurmond asked, mocking Swalwell, who thanked the department for its work last year in the domestic terrorism case.
“You’re not going to vote for a Democrat who made money off of ICE detention centers,” Thurmond continued, referring to Tom Steyer and his former investment firm, which owned companies in the private prison industry.
Yee appeared to take aim at Mahan and his wealthy Silicon Valley backers, suggesting that grassroots Democrats “will not be taken out by a group of billionaire boys who want to rule California.”
Barb has been part of the attacks on government employees, including Steyer, who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager.
In the part of multi-billion jujitsu, he sought to reverse this attack by saying that his great wealth – which allowed him to lavishly fund his political efforts – made him immune to the criticism of plutocrats and business interests.
“Here’s the thing about big sponsors,” Steyer said. “If you take their money, you have to answer their calls. And I don’t owe them anything. In a country where politicians do special things, I can’t be bought.”
There are no game times on Saturday. Nothing was said or done in the nearly 35 minutes the candidates gave themselves that seemed likely to change the course of a race that remains stubbornly defined and, to an extent unprecedented in modern times, open.
And there was no sign that any of the gubernatorial candidates planned to drop out, bowing to concerns that their large numbers could split the Democratic vote and allow two Republicans to slip in and out of California’s top two races.
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But at least for a brief moment, inside San Francisco’s Moscone Center, there was a spark of life in a seemingly empty competition. That proved to be a harbinger of more to come as June’s low inches approached.
