Fix potholes? Fight Trump? Choice faces next California governor

You may have missed it due to President Trump’s endless fireworks, but California voters will decide in November who will replace Gavin Newsom, the most high-profile governor since the Terminator returned to Hollywood.

Unfortunately for those seeking civic engagement, the current contenders are less than fascinating.

In alphabetical order (because there’s no seriously prohibitive front runner), the leading candidates are Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Ian Calderon, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, John Slavet, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa and Betty Yee.

Wow! (Pause to breathe.)

Armed with this knowledge, you can now go out and win yourself a few pub bets by asking someone to give their name, for example. two of those who run.

In the meantime, don’t be afraid. Your friendly columnists, Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria, have surveyed the field, weighed the possibilities, considered California’s long history, and come to this conclusion… They have absolutely no idea what will happen in the June 2 primaries, still less who will take the oath of office next January.

Here they discuss the race in which Californians sit neither pin nor needle.

Kabria: Mark, I do this for a living and I’m having trouble staying interested in this race – though.

Part of my problem is that national events take up so much time and go so fast it’s hard to worry about potholes. I must admit, I appreciate that our governor is fighting hard for the White House. But remind me again, what’s a governor supposed to do?

Barabak: End homelessness. Let’s raise our public schools to first class. Make housing and college tuition affordable. Eliminate crime. End disease and poverty. Place one chicken in each pot. Let the pigs fly and the heavenly angels sing. And then, in their second year…

Seriously, there’s a pretty big difference between what voters want to happen and what a governor wants. any governor – can deliver reasonably. However, if our next CEO can help drive meaningful improvement in just a few of these areas, excluding pigs and angels, I’d say a lot of Californians would be pleased.

Generally speaking, when I talk to voters, I think they want our next governor to push back against Trump and his most egregious excesses. But not as a way to raise their national profile or nominate themselves for the White House. And not without excluding improvement their He lives by paying attention to nitty-gritty issues like making housing and higher education more accessible and, yes, fixing potholes.

Kabriya: All this is fair enough. As a mother of two teenagers, I would especially like to see our college system be more affordable and accessible, so we all have personal priorities. Let’s agree on this starting point: The new governor can’t just chew gum and walk. He should be able to eat a full lunch while running.

But so far the candidates’ political positions, whether state-oriented or not, have not reached a broad audience, and many share broadly similar positions. Now let’s look at the sunlight that separates them, because Republicans aside, there aren’t canyon-sized differences between many candidates.

San José Mayor Matt Mahan, the newest entrant in the race, is trying to position himself as a centrist who says “we can’t all get along.” How do you think this will play out for voters?

Barabak: You’re bringing me uncomfortably close to the Guess Zone that I studiously avoid. As I said before, I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know. (Many readers will doubtless question the underlying premise of the first, if not the second part of this statement.)

I think there is at least one potential Mahan needs to capitalize on the desire to reduce some of the hostilities among voters and ease our constant partisan war footing.

You may not know this if you marinate in social media or watch political outcry demonstrations where the loudest voices are heard, as in nature. But there are many people who work two or even three jobs, drive their kids to soccer practice, worry about paying utilities and doctor bills, care for elderly parents, or struggle in other ways to keep their heads above water. And they are less impressed by the latest rapid-fire clapback on TikTok than they are seeking help to deal with the many challenges they face.

I was struck by something Katie Porter said when we recently sat down for a conversation in San Francisco. The former Orange County congressman can discredit Trump in the best way possible. But he said: “I’m very wary of anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that we had problems and policy challenges long before Donald Trump raised his orange head on the political horizon.”

He noted that the homelessness and affordability crises in California have been years in the making and must be treated as such.

I heard Antonio Villaraigosa suggest something similar during last week’s gubernatorial debate; The former Los Angeles mayor noted that the state has spent billions of dollars in recent years to dramatically reduce homelessness with middling results at best. “We are not afraid to look in the mirror,” he said.

This tells me: Mahan isn’t the only candidate who understands that simply saying “Trump = Bad” isn’t what voters want to hear.

Kabria: Of course, there were potholes and high electric bills before Trump. But if the midterm elections do not favor Democrats, the next governor will likely face a generational challenge in protecting the civil rights of residents of this diverse state. This isn’t about liking or disliking Trump; it’s about making sure our governor has a plan in case attacks on immigrants, the LBGTQ+ community, and citizens in general worsen.

I think this will be important to voters, but I agree with you that candidates can’t just get angry at Trump. They need to deliver some substance.

Porter, Swalwell and Becerra, who have the most national experience and were expected to articulate such a vision, have done little other than dedicate themselves to the fight. Steyer and Thurmond want to abolish ICE, which a governor cannot do. Focusing on state policy is the best crime, Mahan said.

I don’t think this is necessarily the charisma-driven vision that Newsom has presented so effectively. But he must bring determination in a time of fear that none of the candidates have foreseen so far.

But this all depends on the election results in November. If the Democrats can take over Congress and control this terrible imbalance, then bring in the asphalt and fix the roads. I think much of what voters want from a governor won’t be fully known until after November.

Barabak: The criticism of this collective field is that it is extremely boring, as if we were casting a stand-up comedian, a chanteuse or a juggler. I mean, this is the home of Hollywood! Isn’t it the birthright of every Californian citizen to have endless fun?

At least, that’s what the pundits and political know-it-alls who stifle yawns as they constantly update their news on Bluesky or X want you to believe.

Voters elected Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger as governors — the two movie stars in the state’s 175-year history — and given the way the state is often perceived, you’d think celebrity megawatt power would be one of the main prerequisites for a chief executive.

But looking back, California has seen a lot more George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis type governors, the mild-mannered governors no one would mistake for box office gold.

It seems to me not a coincidence that Schwarzenegger, who came as a political innovation, was replaced by Jerry Brown, who was at least as politically tried and honest as they were. This political pendulum never stops swinging.

This suggests that voters will be looking for someone less like our roving, movie-matinee governor and someone more likely to keep their heads down in Sacramento and focus on the state and its needs.

Who will it be? I wouldn’t bet a dime trying to guess. Do you care?

Kabria: I definitely don’t want to make any predictions, but let me tell you this: We may not need or get another Terminator. But if one of these candidates wants to break out of the pack, they need to put some pepper flakes in the tomato paste.