Jeffrey Blehar of National Review Online explores an interesting development in Golden State politics.
[W]hat if I told you there was the slimmest chance the Republicans could retake the California governor’s mansion this year and in the most comedically improbable way conceivable? I don’t want to get your hopes up, but there is at least a small reason to dream the impossible dream.
You see, California (in its malevolent and infinite wisdom) shifted in 2012 to a “top two” primary format, in which all candidates compete against one another in a first round, and then the two highest finishers face off in November. And it just so happens that, currently, the top two candidates in the polling are Republican political commentator Steve Hilton and . . . Republican Chad Bianco, sheriff of Riverside County. The primary is in June, and, in theory, we could be headed for a GOP vs. GOP race in November.
Why? Not because California has gotten any redder in the age of Trump — Hilton has 16 percent of the vote and Bianco 14 percent — but because eight other Democrats are splitting the much larger Democratic vote among themselves. The Democratic candidates are a rogue’s gallery; some of California’s least likable politicians — Katie Porter, Eric Swalwell, Tom Steyer, Xavier Becerra, the list goes on — and the most delightful thing of all is they’re all behaving like crabs in a bucket, reaching up only to desperately pull others down.
The self-destructive lack of coordination among Democrats — each of whom knows that he or she can beat a Republican in a one-on-one matchup — reached peak absurdity yesterday, when the University of Southern California canceled the only scheduled debate in the jungle primary. Why? Because of “criticism over lack of diversity.” Yes, it’s a story that could only come out of California politics: With room onstage for only the six highest-polling candidates, only white people would be given a platform to speak. (Two Republicans, four Democrats, and zero Latinos — perish the thought.)
