Commentary: Youth, money, gender and other takeaways from California's crazy gubernatorial primary
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After all the buildup, fear and uncertainty, the most wide-open and unpredictable California gubernatorial primary in decades appears to have ended in the most consistent and predictable of ways.California has never elected a female governor.That won’t change in November.Voters have never much cared for rich people trying to buy the state’s highest elected office.
They still don’t.The California electorate has typically favored experience over youth, and favored bland and boring over razzle and dazzle.It continues to do so.And for all the speculation about one political party or the other being shut out in Tuesday’s primary, the November runoff may very well turn out to be a thoroughly conventional Democrat vs.
Republican matchup.Here are five takeaways from a gubernatorial contest that was sedentary and sleepy until, suddenly, it wasn’t.Three months ago, Xavier Becerra seemed so irrelevant he — along with a clutch of other weak-polling candidates — was conspicuously excluded from a scheduled debate at USC.Today, the Democrat has seemingly punched his ticket to November.The obvious parallel is with another massive underdog, Gray Davis, who also came from far behind to win the last time a gubernatorial primary held this level of uncertainty and suspense.
That was back in 1998.Gray Davis was a huge underdog who prevailed in a wide-open 1998 contest.The Democrat urges trailing hopefuls to ignore pressure to quit and ‘follow your heart.’Like Davis, Becerra has a political persona that could be marketed as a sleep aid.
No one will ever mistake either of them for, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger.But Becerra’s even-keeled demeanor seemed the perfect prescription following the overnight implosion of Eric Swalwell’s scandal-scarred campaign while presenting a welcome contrast with the endless Sturm und Drang emanating from Washington, D.C.Despite California’s star-st...