Seventy days before California voters would send to the general election as the Democratic candidate for governor, the former state legislator, former congressman, former attorney general, and former U.S. secretary of health and human services couldn’t even score an invite to the state’s marquee gubernatorial debate stage.
The March 24 forum at the University of Southern California was supposed to be the campaign’s first major televised confrontation in a freewheeling governor’s race. Eight leading Democrats, none of whom you’d likely remember except for the worst of reasons (Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer), shivved one another for the right to succeed . In pre-debate polling, Becerra languished near the bottom of the field. Democratic officials feared that the crowded field might julienne the party’s vote so thoroughly that two Republicans would advance from California’s open primary.
Comments