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from Dan WaltersCalMatters
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Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
This old question pretty much sums up what was billed as 90 minute debate among the eight serious — at least in their own minds — candidates for governor on Tuesday night.
It really wasn’t a debate in the classic sense, but rather brief responses from the six Democrats and two Republicans to questions posed by a panel of moderators at Pomona College and broadcast by CBS stations.
They weren’t even given a chance to tell the on-site audience and TV viewers, even briefly, why they wanted the job through opening or closing statements. Instead, the panelists raised a familiar set of hot-button issues — gas prices, wildfires, home insurance, homelessness, health care, housing shortages and education gaps — and asked for reactions.
Democrats generally blamed the shortcomings on greedy corporations — especially oil companies and insurers — and Donald Trump, while Republicans blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
Only rarely did candidates defy the panel’s strict scrutiny and confront each other, but those exchanges were banal at best.
If voters tuned in to learn anything about how the gubernatorial candidates would actually govern, they got a sparse mess at best. The candidates occasionally slipped in references to what they did before running for governor, but they said little about what they would do as governor, and then only when the panelists specifically sought that information.
No one stood out. But frankly, the tightly controlled format didn’t allow for that; therefore, it is unlikely that the event will have any major impact on what the studies are telling us after the sudden departure of Eric Swawell amid allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
Swawell, who also resigned from Congress, was in the top Democratic caucus and it was shaping up to be a duel with billionaire Tom Steyer for one of the top two primary finishes and thus a spot on the November general election ballot.
After Swalwell’s spectacular fall, one of the Democrats mired in single digits, former attorney general and Biden cabinet member Xavier Becerra jumped from 4 percent to 13 percent in a Democratic poll, tying with Steyer. Since then, Steyer has devoted some of his lavish advertising spending to attacking Becerra’s record as Biden’s secretary of health and welfare.
California voters will receive their primary ballots in a few days and return them by mail over the next four weeks, with the June 2 deadline. Right now, it looks like Steyer and Becerra will compete for a runoff seat, with former Congresswoman Katie Porter and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan as backup contenders if either front-runner fails.
Meanwhile, the two Republicans, Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco and former TV commentator Steve Hilton, could still go 1-2 and freeze out Democrats in one of the nation’s bluest states.
It is more likely that one of the Republicans will face one of the Democrats, but which Republican and which Democrat is still very much uncertain as the campaigns enter their sprint to the finish line in June.
Steyer is sure to step up his attacks on Becerra, who has drawn new support since Swawell’s departure, but may not have the millions of dollars to respond in kind, especially since public employee unions, the deepest well of Democratic campaign cash, are divided.
Porter also hasn’t had the resources to mount a heavy drive in recent weeks. Mahan does have money from interests in Silicon Valley, but his late entry and very slow organizational efforts could doom a late push.
A pre-debate poll from CBS confirmed that there are no clear favourites. The uncertainty and confusion that marked the election of a new governor continues. Tuesday’s event did not provide much clarity.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.