By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Contributing Columnist
Nothing would make California Democrats a bigger laughingstock than the election of an up-front MAGA California governor. Note I said MAGA governor not a Republican governor.
One candidate, the front runner, Steve Hilton, proudly gushes over the endorsement he got from President Donald Trump. The other, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, near the top in some polls, also proudly wears the MAGA allegiance badge.
They are perched at the top because of California’s strange, and actually silly, primary rule. The top two vote getters face off against each other in the November general election. That is in sharp contrast to the standard face off between the top voting Democrat and Republican candidates in the general election. The fact that one MAGA candidate has held the top spot in the polls for so long should be an embarrassment to Democrats in the state.
The terror of a MAGA California governor is so great that a legion of influential Democrats has screamed for the bottom rung of the half dozen or more Democratic gubernatorial candidates to drop out. In March, the state’s Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks penned an open letter to the candidates who had zilch chance.
He was blunt: “If you do not have a viable path to make it to the general election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the primary election.”
The warning came way too late. The current crop of Democratic candidates had already filed. Worse, they all pushed back, and continued to push back against the “drop out now” calls. The Democrats who see a pending Armageddon with two MAGA guys poised to steal the gubernatorial seat have gotten no help from outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Both have made it clear that they will make no endorsement before the June 2 primary. They have also been quiet on the “drop out now” appeal to the bottom rung candidates. The grave fall out of two top voting-getting GOP candidates facing off against each other for the top spot in November would be colossal.
That would make tens of thousands of Democratic voters essentially disenfranchised in the governor’s contest on Election Day in November. The thought of voting for a MAGA candidate would be simply too nauseating for many.
That almost certainly would depress the turnout and potentially swing the door wide open for Republican candidates to either be competitive if not outright win state assembly, senate, and congressional seats.
It also would diminish California’s Democratic Party’s political clout. The state is viewed as the state that Democrats nationally bank on to put a semblance of a check on the Trump and GOP juggernaut in Congress. That would be put in jeopardy.
California Democrats would never hear the end of Trump crowing loudly that he torpedoed the Democratic Party in California. Further, it would embolden him to escalate his assault on the Democratic Party’s fight against him on his immigration crackdown and a range of health, education, job and environmental and labor programs wildly at odds with his administration.
It also would force California Democratic state legislators into a non-stop, knock-down, drag-out battle with a Republican governor over every program and spending initiative. That almost certainly would force Democrats to consider cutbacks in vital programs to get anything done.
It also would ignite an orgy of finger pointing and second guessing among the state Democrats. That in turn would dampen enthusiasm and support from Democratic voters for future Democratic candidates.
The dangling question many puzzle over is just how did two Republican gubernatorial candidates emerge at or near the top of the voter heap. How could that happen even with multiple Democratic candidates in such a top heavy Democratic, deep Blue state?
The answer goes far beyond the number of Democratic gubernatorial candidates potentially shooting the party in the foot. The answer lies in what one commentator once wryly observed about California politics. That is when you get past the coastal cities and travel inland, California looks like Alabama. In other words, there’s much myth-making about supposed ultra-liberal California.
Much of California is not blue but deep red. I might add that includes wide stretches of L.A. County. There are a lot of Republicans in the state, some open, and many quieter.
A bigger percentage of those on the QT side Republicans are MAGA enthusiasts. So, the blunt truth is that California is not the iron clad, lock down Democratic state that it’s continually depicted as.
Trump himself made that point when he said that he if he had aggressively campaigned in the state in his two presidential bids he could have won it. That is typical Trumpian balderdash.
However, the element of truth to that is that he almost certainly would have bumped up his vote total here if he had devoted serious campaign time and resources in the state.
None of this doomsday scenario may come to pass. However, just the fact that it has come to this point and made so many Democrats sweat an election in which Democrats have routinely won for the past three decades and which on paper should have been a walk over for Democrats is a rude wake up call.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is “The Epstein Distraction” (Amazon ebook and Middle Passage Press). He also hosts the weekly news and issues commentary radio show “The Hutchinson Report” Wednesdays at 6 p.m. at ktymgospel.net and Facebook Livestreamed at facebook.com/earl.o.hutchinson.
