CA Gubernatorial Primary Tested Which Dem Could Pander Harder

In our cynical era, large swaths of the American public believe politicians just say what people want to hear to get elected. The recently concluded primary election to succeed Gavin Newsom as California’s governor epitomizes this theory.

After the campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., imploded over sexual assault allegations, two Democrats who remained fought to assure themselves a spot in November’s general election by pandering to different groups — one to corporate interests, the other to woke interests. Both efforts brought to mind a quote from Yes, Minister, often attributed (probably incorrectly) to a politician and revolutionary in 19th-century France: “I am their leader. I must follow them.”

Steyer: Playing to Woke Groups

The first candidate, billionaire Tom Steyer, thought that embracing “peak woke” would offset his plutocratic background. As I noted in January, Steyer embraced a single-payer health care system for California. In doing so, he followed the tradition of Newsom, who pledged he would get single-payer done during his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018, only to allow the issue to fizzle out upon taking office.

His endorsement of socialized medicine moved Steyer significantly to the left compared to his (failed) 2020 presidential campaign. He claimed, “Bernie Sanders was right. We need single-payer health care. … In 2019, I didn’t think we needed single-payer health care.”

A post-election analysis of his campaign noted that the flip-flop on health care represented just one of the ways Steyer pandered to the left:

For the nurses, that was single-payer health care. For environmentalists, it was breaking up utility monopolies. And for the California Teachers Association, which endorsed Steyer after Swalwell’s exit, it was raising corporate property taxes through a special election — a costly fight that, for some, came with the unspoken expectation that Steyer could help pay for it.

The analysis continued by comparing Steyer’s campaign to a political version of The Oprah Winfrey Show — “You get a car! You get a car! … Everybody gets a car!” — which “left people debating where [Steyer’s] conviction ended and his calculation began.”

Becerra: Party Apparatchik

Contrast Steyer’s attempt to appeal to leftist interest groups with the campaign of former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Days after I had drafted my article noting Becerra’s long history of supporting single-payer, the candidate suddenly decided he didn’t support the issue after all. And you’ll never guess where he announced he had arrived at that conclusion:

Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra has softened his support for a single-payer healthcare system as he secures endorsements in his bid to be California’s next governor, most recently from the powerful doctors’ group, the California Medical Association, which officially backed him this week. … “He said very clearly that, at this point, he wasn’t supportive of single payer,” said Dr. René Bravo, president of the California Medical Association.

The article noted that Becerra’s sudden rise in the polls after Swalwell’s implosion “forced him to clarify the nuances of his policy positions, including single-payer.”

“Clarify the nuances” puts it too politely. Suddenly, when his candidacy went from also-ran status to potentially viable, someone who had as recently as March 23 posted that “I’m ready to go further as Governor and deliver single-payer health care for our state” no longer believed in achieving it while in office — at least not when there was political advantage to be gained by flip-flopping.

Thus, Becerra’s campaign website got scrubbed of references to single-payer. And business interests contributed millions to boost Becerra’s prospects in the closing stretch of the primary campaign, while simultaneously running ads bashing Steyer.

Biden Redux?

The end result in California looked something like Biden’s miraculous rise from the political dead around the time of the South Carolina primary in 2020. That year, the leadership of the Democrat Party consolidated in record time around Biden — a longtime party functionary with a not-particularly-noteworthy history — because they needed someone, anyone, to combat the rise of avowed socialist Bernie Sanders.

This time around, Becerra has taken on the role of Biden. By simply functioning as an empty (or nearly empty) vessel for the party machine, Democrats hope Becerra can defeat Republican Steve Hilton in the general election this November, just as Biden recaptured the White House for Democrats in 2020.

But Biden’s sole term in office didn’t exactly end well, and Becerra has a history of incompetence in office. All of this means Democrats should be careful what they wish for in the Golden State. They just might get it.