Gov. Gavin Newsom took a big step toward re-election Tuesday after quickly outmaneuvering a field full of barely-known challengers in the primary, though the size of his first-round victory was unclear immediately after polls closed in California.
The Associated Press projected that the 55-year-old Democrat would easily cruise into the November 8 election.
Newsom’s dominance comes nearly nine months after he easily crushed a Republican-led impeachment bid. The one-two punch showed how formidable he remains in California politics, even after a first term in which he was tested by the tumult of the COVID-19 pandemic, six of the largest wildfires in history. of the state and a worsening homeless crisis.
A poll released last week by the UC Berkeley Institute for Government Studies and co-sponsored by The Times showed that Newsom’s most likely opponent in November is state Sen. Brian Dahle, a Republican from Northern California who has never run for office. state charge. The poll showed that half of likely voters backed Newsom’s re-election bid, compared to 10% who supported Dahle.
Dahle, a grain farmer from the small Lassen County town of Bieber, knows that defeating Newsom will take a Herculean effort. However, he has said in recent weeks that he believes Californians yearn for political change after seeing what Newsom and decades of Democratic leadership in the state have brought about. He blamed Newsom’s policies for the state’s persistent struggles with crime, homelessness and the high cost of living.
Primary voter turnout is expected to be low statewide, most likely fueled by a lack of suspense and voter interest in California’s top statewide races for Governor and U.S. Senate. Democratic Senator Alex Padilla, who was appointed by Newsom a little over two years ago, passes the November election even though it is the first time he has stood before voters for the coveted job.
Newsom had little incentive to tangle with his rivals in the months leading up to the primary. Aside from political ads criticizing Dahle for opposing abortion rights and accusing him of being loyal to former President Trump, Newsom’s campaign barely came to light. He, too, sits on a re-election fund of about $23 million, while his 25 challengers had a little over $1 million combined at the end of last month.
Even on Election Day, Newsom opted to skip the campaign trail, a telling indication that he wasn’t worried about the primary. Instead, he was preparing for the Summit of the Americas, where he will greet President Biden and other world leaders in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Nearly two weeks ago, the governor announced that he had contracted the coronavirus, though a spokesman said last week that Newsom’s follow-up tests came back negative.
When Newsom crushed the recall election in September, he essentially cemented his re-election, said Sarah Hill, a political scientist at Cal State Fullerton. GOP supporters of retirement and GOP candidates hoping to replace him attacked Newsom over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the homeless crisis, rising violent crime and the astronomically high cost of housing.
But his efforts fell short, with nearly 63% of voters who voted choosing to keep Newsom in office.
“If he was going to go down, if he was as unpopular as some people expected, the recall would show it. But he clearly dominated in retirement and came back strong,” Hill said. “I think he just scared off anyone who might oppose him.”
None of the top Republicans running to replace Newsom in the recall election challenged his candidacy for a second term. Among those who passed were conservative talk show host Larry Elder, who led the field of impeachment replacement candidates, and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, once considered the California GOP’s best hope for defeating Newson.
The Democratic governor has already signaled plans to use the same political strategy that proved so effective during the recall, when he described the campaign to impeach him as a “life and death” battle against Trumpism and far-right activists who oppose Trump. vaccines against COVID-19. and they want to rescind the right to abortion.
Newsom seized on Dahle’s opposition to abortion rights in a campaign ad released just days after the leak last month of a US Supreme Court draft opinion that would strike down abortion rights protected by Roe v. Wade. After a shooting two weeks ago at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead, the governor also criticized Republicans for stifling gun control efforts and said the party will “do nothing” to protect Americans. Americans from gun violence.
Dahle has said he hopes Newsom’s campaign will paint him as a far-right “crazy boy,” and that one of his biggest challenges will be raising enough money to douse any sparks generated by a political smear campaign while allowing voters know what he really stands for.
Upstart independent candidate Michael Shellenberger amplified the same criticism of the governor, saying Newsom was more interested in running for president one day than curing the many ills that Shellenberger says are destroying Californians’ quality of life. The Berkeley-based activist blamed Newsom and progressives in the state’s big cities for exacerbating the homeless crisis and planting the seeds for the rise in violent crime.
However, with no major political party backing him, Shellenberger struggled to gain ground in the primary, as did the other two dozen unannounced challengers. History was not on his side either, as no California governor has lost a re-election race since 1942.
Reference-www.latimes.com