Commentary: Stop being so chill, Xavier Becerra. Fight for California's future

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Xavier Becerra needed to land a knockout punch, even more so than the five other candidates for California governor he was facing at Wednesday night’s debate.Instead, he fired off some slaps.He needed to roar about his many accomplishments in his 35-year career in Sacramento and Washington, to distinguish himself from the relative political neophytes around him.Instead, Becerra recited his resume with the vigor of someone rattling off his LinkedIn page.He needed to uplift Californians with a vision of hope, when many feel the state is going in the wrong direction.Instead, he offered the oratory equivalent of a pat on the shoulder.No candidate had more at stake that night than Becerra, who went from an afterthought to a contender after Eric Swalwell dropped out and resigned his congressional seat over sexual assault allegations.

Five weeks ago, Becerra and other candidates of color were protesting their exclusion from a USC debate because they were all polling so low.Now, the 68-year-old has a chance to become California’s first Latino governor.

California In addition to new endorsements, Becerra has jumped nine points in a recent state Democratic Party poll, tying with billionaire Tom Steyer at 13%.This possibility seems to have uncorked California’s silent majority — the rancho libertarians turned off by hard-right politics but also the wokoso politics they feel have left them behind.The people who yearn for an unglamorous, competent leader after eight years of all-about-me Gavin Newsom and a decade of Donald Trump.Becerra’s campaign, once as rudderless as a leaf in a river in a race so chaotic for Democrats that many feared two Republicans would win on June 2 and face each other in the general election, suddenly latched onto a palpable wave.

At the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books last weekend, I saw people sporting Becerra campaign buttons who had just come from...