Mahan’s entry makes the California governor’s race a litmus test

from Dan WaltersCalMatters

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With the not-unexpected the entry of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahanhe large field of candidates to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom is likely finished — and could very well shrink again.

The preparation for this moment was the strangest gubernatorial election process in modern history with potential candidates appearing successively and dropping out. Until Mahan’s announcement Thursday, there were eight other Democrats — not counting the unknown vanity runners — and two Republicans in contention.

Since the array is now probably fixed and there are no shadow candidates left, things will start to sort themselves out. Polls will become more accurate, political financiers will make their commitments, and those who have been left behind in polls and money will find other ways to exist. They may not drop before the June primary, but they will find themselves ignored by donors and the media.

That would still leave a half-dozen Democrats with at least an outside chance of making it to the November runoff by finishing first or second in June.

Back to Mahan.

One of the most interesting things about the mayor of San Jose is this he was quite a harsh critic of Newsom. Until now, billionaire Tom Steyer has been the only Democratic hopeful to criticize the state’s governance flaws, but he has never explicitly linked Newsom to the state’s most obvious problems, such as housing shortages and high utility bills.

Mahan was much more specific.

Last August, in a commentary for the San Francisco StandardMahan chided Newsom for spending so much time positioning himself as an enemy of President Donald Trump instead of addressing California’s issues.

“Governor Newsom’s supporters say he is ‘breaking the internet’ and ‘owning’ Trump,” Mahan wrote. “But the governor and every elected official and leader must also come to terms with the truth. And the truth is, California has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 5.5%, and nearly half the nation is homeless. We have the highest energy and housing costs in the continental United States and, in large part because of those high costs, the highest level of effective poverty in the nation.”

In announcing his candidacy, Mahan maintained his break with the political status quo.

“I’m getting into this race because we need a governor who is both a fighter for our values ​​and a solver of our problems,” he said. “We can solve the biggest problems facing California, and I believe that because we’re making real progress on homelessness, public safety (and) housing in San Jose.”

Given the state’s chronic budget deficits, one of the many issues for Mahan and other Democratic candidates will be whether the government should cut spending or raise taxes. The latter is partially framed in a pending ballot initiative it would impose a 5 percent tax on the wealth of about 200 California billionaires, mostly for health care programs now facing cuts.

The wealth tax is a holy grail for the left wing of the Democratic Party, and it’s an issue on which Newsom and Mahan agree. Both say it would drive wealthy Californians out of the state, reduce their investment in job-creating businesses and deprive the state budget of their annual income taxes.

California is a deep blue state, but its Democratic politicians, including gubernatorial candidates, are not a monolith. Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are likely the most centrist members of the field and could face opposition from union leaders.

The outcome of the campaign will be a litmus test of how left of center California really is.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.