For those who think California politics is on the far-left fringe of the national spectrum, stand by. The next election season, already well underway here, will showcase a younger generation of Democrats that is more liberal and personally invested in standing up to President Trump’s Washington than those leaving office.
Here in the self-labeled “state of resistance,” the political debate is being pushed further left without any sign of a Republican renaissance to serve as a check on spending and social policy ambitions. Even some Republicans are concerned about the departure of Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who proved to be fiscally cautious after inheriting a state seven years ago in deep recession.
The race to succeed him, as well as contests for U.S. Senate and statewide offices, probably will feature a November ballot exclusively filled with Democrats. The top two primary finishers compete in the state’s general election regardless of party, setting up several races between the Democrats’ left and even-more-left wings in the nation’s most-populous state, races that could signal the direction of the party’s future.
In an off-presidential election year, California will serve as a campaign lab for many national issues, including taxes, immigration, health care, climate change, rural-urban income disparities and sexual harassment. The campaigns will test for national Democrats the most useful positions on issues important to the party’s base and will provide a preview for national Republicans of the popularity of those stands.
“You are going to be talking about Democrat-on-Democrat crime, for the most part,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. “What also is certain is that the next governor is going to be more progressive than Jerry Brown.”
The prescription here for Democrats in a state where few — if any — will need to moderate their positions for the general election is simple. “You go left,” said Karen Skelton, a Democratic consultant here.
Full story at The Washington Post.
Most of the Democratic leadership is up there in age. So younger candidates are almost a given. While far left positions may be acceptable in California, remember 2016 national presidential elections. For better or worse, Mr. Trump managed to win. There are 49 other states in the game.
Many of the Democrat politicians doing damage to California are Catholics.
Leave it to the Washington Post to call Jerry Brown “fiscally cautious.”
“How did this ever become CA State Law: “The top two primary finishers compete in the state’s general election regardless of party, setting up several races between the Democrats’ left and even-more-left wings in the nation’s most-populous state”
This sounds like a fascist or communist electoral process! Your either a liberal commucrat or your not tolerated, doomed for the rest of your days. Conservatives can be completely ignored and not represented in our state government. With Commucract supermajorities, the future looks bleak for everyone except the overdosed progressive hallucinators who think they have a better vision of how we are all suppose to follow. Life is probably going to become so bad here, they will hate their own…