California’s governor race just hit primary panic, scandal echoes, and a mess that’s getting bigger than any one campaign.
This is California Governor's Race. Today, we’re tracking the Becerra-linked firm raising eyebrows, Democratic nerves over the state’s free-for-all primary, debate frustration, and the backlash over ICE rhetoric.
Saturday politics, absolutely no chill.
Exactly. And first up, the scandal questions now circling Becerra’s bid.
From Ashley Zavala:
Bearstar Strategies, a political firm linked to individuals accused of stealing campaign funds from Xavier Becerra, is now supporting his bid for California governor. The firm, which was listed as part of The Collaborative, allegedly used their LLC, which used nearly a quarter of a million dollars from one of the candidate's campaign accounts to transfer funds to his long-time chief of staff, Sean McCluskie, and Gavin Newsom.
That’s rough optics, and it’s easy campaign-trail ammunition. If Becerra is running as the victim of a theft scandal, a firm tied to the accused being anywhere near his governor bid gives rivals a very simple attack line.
And that leads straight into the primary panic. From The Guardian:
The chair of the California Democratic party says he wants to get rid of the state’s idiosyncratic “open primary”, calling it a failure that risks pitting a crowded field of Democratic candidates against each other to the point where a Republican can be elected governor of one of the bluest states in the US.
So, Democrats are looking at the rules and suddenly sounding very interested in changing them. The risk is real, though: in a top-two system, a crowded Democratic field can produce an outcome almost nobody in the majority party wants.
Over on Reddit, one r/politics commenter was a lot less delicate about it:
No, sorry what needs to happen is the underperforming, have zero chance Democrats like Mahan and Villaraigosa need to drop out so that serious candidates can consolidate support. Both are at 4% as of the last poll, and if Dems get locked out, it'll be because these two are too selfish. And in the case of Mahan, I suspect that the people funding his campaign would be just as happy with a Republican governor.
The frustration makes sense. If low-polling Democrats stay in and split the field, that’s not some abstract civics headache; that’s a campaign-management problem. The claim about Mahan’s funders goes harder than the evidence here, but the broader point lands: candidates sitting at four percent can’t act like they have no effect on the race.
Another r/politics commenter had a different fix in mind:
They need to change the jungle primary to be Approval Voting. Approval voting lets people vote for multiple candidates, and the two candidates with the most votes can advance to the general election. This turns the question into, “who would you be okay with winning?” and it can allow for more positive campaigning, too. Approval voting is used by the Mathematical Association of America, the American Mathematical Society, and the American Statistical Association. If it’s used by math nerds, it’s…
Approval voting is a real answer to the top-two problem, because voters can say who they’d accept, not only who their first choice is. And yes, if the math nerds have stress-tested your election system, that’s a better credential than, “we shoved this into a budget deal.”
And one more r/politics commenter put the whole thing very bluntly:
It's almost like they want Rank-Choice Voting.
Pretty much. California keeps running into the same problem with a different label on it: crowded field, plurality-style pressure, and voters left wishing they had some way to rank preferences instead of playing electoral chicken.
Meanwhile, the debates are not exactly calming anyone down. From The Ukiah Daily Journal:
If voters tuned in to learn something about how the would-be governors would actually govern, they were given thin gruel at best. The candidates occasionally sneaked in references to what they had done prior to running for governor, but they said little about what they would do as governor, and then only when the panelists specifically sought that information.
That’s the cattle-call debate problem in one paragraph. Everyone gets a minute, nobody really gets pinned down, and voters come away with vibes instead of governing plans. California has real crises around housing, insurance, fire, and affordability. “I blame the other team” is not much of a platform.
And then there’s the ICE rhetoric. From The Nerd Stash:
In the short clip, he said, “With me as governor, we’re gonna get ICE out of the state of California. ICE is going to have to go through every single law enforcement officer and lawyer in the state of California before they so much as touch a hair on the head of any California resident.”
That line is built for maximum voltage. The legal reality is a lot messier. A governor can fight state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, but “getting ICE out” of California runs straight into federal power.
We’ve got links to all of today’s stories in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig in there.
That’s California Governor’s Race for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.