Commentary: What the primary chaos says about California Democrats

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

The first rule of a primary election is: Don’t make too much of the results.The intrepid folks who bother to cast a ballot in these first-round races are largely a group of engaged voters, and drawing conclusions from such a narrow minority is a losing game.

So however the final June results tally out, the lessons learned won’t easily translate to the larger electorate that will almost surely show up in November.But if this election doesn’t tell us much about what fall voters will do, it does tell us something about the Democratic Party that dominates this state: It’s chaotic, to put it gently.

And no, that’s not entirely the fault of the “jungle” primary.Traditional rules seem to have broken down (not a bad thing) and new ones haven’t yet emerged.

The old guard has lost control, and maybe vision, and the result is more candidates willing to sidestep seniority and a wait-your-turn mentality to try their luck — especially younger progressives.California’s gubernatorial primary might not be decided for days or weeks.

President Trump plans to use our primary to assert federal control of state-run elections.Sometimes that chutzpah works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s a mirror of the national trend of Democratic infighting and a glimpse into just how fragmented the party has become as it tries to figure out who it stands for and who it supports before the 2028 presidential election.“I feel like I’m definitely running against major institutional forces, but that’s how it is,” state Sen.

Scott Wiener told me recently.“At times we see sort of a little bit of a fortress mentality, and other perspectives are not welcome, and younger folks, newer voices are not welcome, and and that’s a dynamic that plays out in a lot of different places.” Wiener, who could be considered king of the line-jumpers, just took the top spot in the San Francisco-centered...