Many of the candidates for governor of California would be … OK … I suppose, after seeing several them up on a San Francisco stage last week during the first campaign debate.
Well, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco would not be at all OK, the former Oath Keeper member who does a ruinous job running his own department, allowing tragic numbers of deaths in his jails. He wasn’t there Tuesday night, leaving the lone other prominent Republican in the race, Steve Hilton, to do the GOP heavy lifting.
For those of us who don’t watch Fox News, I bring news: Hilton is British! He has an English accent! How novel would that be. A foreigner in Sacramento. Oh. Right. We’ve already had an Austrian knocking down the Grüner Veltliner in the cigar tent outside the Capitol. Such a big tent, our California Republican Party.
Anyway, I watched the whole dang two hours-plus of the debate, yes, so that you didn’t have to, as I’m sure few of you did at this early stage of the race, and if you don’t mind, as if you had a choice in the matter, while some of my comments on the candidates will be substantive, I’ve got style points to award as well. Which is not frivolous. Because no one votes for governor based on position papers alone. Policy checklists don’t represent the largest and greatest state in the union to the rest of the nation, and to the world.
That’s the job of a guy in a slick suit who looks good on TV.
Speaking of which, if you go by the old political debate dictum that the candidate the other contenders attack most is the one they consider the front-runner, who needs to be taken down if they are to succeed, your next governor of California is a guy you’d never heard of until a couple of weeks ago: San José Mayor Matt Mahan.
Which would be fine with me. A brilliant, well-spoken moderate Democrat who fought the public employee unions in San Jose City Hall and won and who has sensible yet somehow iconoclastic ideas on just about everything? Sign me up. No wonder Hilton went after him in the debate: The Republicans’ only chance in our state is to convince our mostly Democratic electorate that they are the only practical alternative to progressive lunacy.
But Steve Hilton can’t win. The only reason he seems moderate is that English accent, and those stylish bracelets he wears, and the fact that because he is a relative normie he understands that climate change is real, as conservative politicians in the rest of the world do. But he’s actually running to the right of Chad Bianco, running with MAGA-world Gloria Romero as his choice for lieutenant governor. During the debate, he said of the absent sheriff: “In 2020, during the Black Lives Matter riots, he took a knee when told to by BLM.” Bianco can’t win. Hilton can’t win. They don’t have the numbers in our state. If you’re interested in helping select the next governor of California, you have to pay attention to the Democrats, and either fall in love or find the one who ain’t a stinker.
I know. Paying attention to most of the folks who filled the stage Tuesday is really boring. Xavier Becerra, who filed 122 lawsuits against the Trump administration as California attorney general and was Joe Biden’s health secretary, and how we miss him as that, is very smart, and is boring. Tom Steyer is the sharp billionaire who is boring. Tony Thurmond has to run on his record as schools chief in a state with terrible results in public education, plus I hate the fact that he was moonlighting with a second job when education secretary. Antonio Villaraigosa is also running as a moderate and has vast experience as mayor of Los Angeles and as Assembly speaker but has no new big ideas. Betty Yee comes across like someone who previously chaired the state Franchise Tax Board, which she did.
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Who will save America from progressives on the right and left? Democratic candidates for governor look to expand failed policies Steven Greenhut: MAGA’s Second Amendment double standard Will Matt Mahan’s entrance shake up leaderless gubernatorial race? What’s behind the wild new wealth tax proposals? And the Dems who weren’t there Tuesday? I don’t believe the backers who say Katie Porter didn’t blow up her campaign for good when the videotapes of her petty, mean tetchiness were released. She is entirely unlikeable. Eric Swalwell was great during the Trump impeachment; the Bay Area congressman is too little known in Southern California, and can’t stand out from the crowd.You know who can? Matt Mahan. As the others laid into him Tuesday night, showing how scared they are of the newcomer who is bringing life to the race, he stayed Harvard cool. Hilton slammed him after Mahan was asked to note something Gavin Newsom has done well, and said that he had done OK on homelessness. Because homelessness is bad. But Mahan’s response was perfect, and undefensive: “Steve, you came to San Jose just a week ago to see what’s working. We’ve seen the largest reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the state. What’s wrong with our politics is to denigrate ideas because of who has them.”
Maybe Mahan will fade, some other star will rise. Maybe. Based on his performance Tuesday night, I say he’s our next governor.
Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board.
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