Who is running for governor of California? It keeps changing

from Dan WaltersCalMatters

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Being elected governor of California is a tall order, requiring the creation of a large apparatus to plan and execute campaign strategy and raising tens of millions of dollars to pay for it.

Therefore, as California’s population increased in the post-World War II era, those seeking to govern the state usually declared their ambitions at least two years later, even if they already held other offices.

This bit of political history comes because California voters will elect a new governor in less than a year, and filing will begin in just a few weeks, but the field of candidates seems to be changing almost daily.

Some that were inside have dropped outsuch as Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former state Senate leader Tony Atkins. Meanwhile, some who were considering running — like fVice President of Worms Kamala Harris — give way, and at least one who has given up may jump again. And the names of other potential candidates keep popping up.

The cloud of uncertainty underscores not only the daunting logistics of a campaign in California, but perhaps some hesitancy about trying to govern a state that in many ways may be ungovernable.

Gavin Newsom will step down, possibly to mount a presidential campaign, with the underlying problems that plagued California when he became governor in 2019 still unresolved, and in some cases worse.

Unreliable water supplies, poor public education performance, acute housing shortages, rampant homelessness, high levels of unemployment and poverty, crushing costs of living, and chronically unbalanced government budgets are just some of the critical issues that await anyone who survives the coming campaign.

There are several would-be governors who have announced earlier, such as former Congresswoman Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Attorney General and Congressman Xavier Becerra.

However, their ability to raise the huge sums of money needed to fund a campaign is hampered by uncertainty about who else might step in. Lesser-known candidates, such as Superintendent of Public Schools Tony Thurmond, former Comptroller Betty Yee and former Assemblyman Ian Calderon, are even less favorable.

The murky picture on the Democratic side doesn’t affect the two most prominent Republicans running, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former TV personality Steve Hilton, but their roles hinge on whether one finishes second in the June primary or two Democrats emerge as finalists in the November election.

A very wealthy Republican-turned-Democrat businessman Rick Caruso is among those still worried. Another billionaire, Tom Steyer, has thrown a bunch of money into a personal campaign for Proposition 50, Newsom’s partisan face in Congress, hinting that he’s thinking about it.

Congressman Eric Swwell, who has become one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest critics, is reportedly weighing a run. Annoyance of Trump worked for Adam Schiff, who propelled him to a seat in the US Senate, so it could help Swalwell given voters’ unbridled dislike of Trump.

And then there’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, who — somewhat surprisingly — pulled himself out of contention early and said he would seek re-election. It was surprising because Bonta is a famous advertiser who releases some sort of announcement literally every weekday. Tuesday’s version intervened in a court case over legislation dealing with art theft.

Bonta was rumored this week to be rethinking his run for governor due to the lack of a clear front-runner.

So who’s ahead?

A a recent study by the UC-Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studiesfound that among declared Democrats, Porter led with 11% of registered votersbut Sheriff Bianco was the overall leader with 13%.

These weak numbers tell us it’s wide open and impossible to identify a likely winner.

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