Walters: Democrats seeking governorship strut their stuff for state’s unions
Given California s daunting even existential array of social economic and fiscal crises it s remarkable that anyone would volunteer to become its governor However Gavin Newsom will vacate the office months hence with the greater part of those crises still in place and at least seven Democratic politicians yearn to succeed him Former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins former U S Healthcare and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra Lt Gov Eleni Kounalakis former Rep Katie Porter Superintendent of Masses Instruction Tony Thurmond former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former State Controller Betty Yee put themselves on display Monday evening during a legislative conference of the state s major union organizations It was what politicians call a beauty contest in which candidates are given opportunities to briefly strut their stuff without any deep oratory It was also an opportunity for the union leaders to pin them down on their top bread-and-butter issues such as granting unemployment insurance benefits to striking workers mandatory use of union labor in construction projects and more money for those projects including the financially troubled bullet train With Lorena Gonzalez head of the California Labor Federation and Chris Hannan president of the building trades shooting the questions the candidates were demanded to wave flags indicating whether they supported the various union objectives Most of toed the union line although Villaraigosa who sparred with schooling unions during his mayoralty demurred on the unemployment insurance issue citing its cost and the state s chronic budget deficits That and several other issues were indirect potshots at Newsom who has occasionally bucked the unions He rejected striker unemployment benefits and his crusade to wean California from oil which is beginning to shut down its refineries drew opposition from the candidates when queried by refinery union members Several announced the campaign against oil would raise Californians already high costs of living and as Yee put it cannot be on the backs of workers As the salon continued it was obvious that two people not in the ballroom of Sacramento s downtown Sheraton Hotel were looming over the event President Donald Trump and the woman he defeated last fall former Vice President and California senator Kamala Harris Surprisingly only Kounalakis brought up Trump without being prompted since opposing Trump is a sacred tenet of California s Democratic politicians She vowed unrelenting resistance and others later followed her lead However Villaraigosa continued to somewhat set himself apart saying we can t just take on Trump but must address California s multiple problems Harris was an even more powerful specter as she plays it coy on whether to rekindle her political career by running for governor She apparently is weighing whether to do that or resume her quest for the White House in when Trump presumably will end his second term and depart Related Articles Walters Newsom flaunts state s market yet downplays its mounting deficit Walters Newsom jabs at DOGE but will he use AI to deliver efficiency California job area flops as it lands near bottom among US states Walters When California politicians ignore agenda risks failure often results Kamala Harris returns to spotlight in major speech slamming Trump A presidential rerun could put her in direct conflict with Newsom who continues to emit indications of considering a White House campaign himself while publicly denying such ambitions Were Harris to seek the governorship polls indicate that she would be the immediate frontrunner particularly in a crowded field of primary ballot hopefuls However it s also likely that several of the seven current political samurai would drop out should Harris run With a smaller field one of the remaining Democrats might make the November runoff in the top-two primary setting up a two-person duel Until Harris decides however everything is tentative and unsettled including efforts to raise the a multitude of millions of dollars needed to campaign for statewide office in California The union leaders who staged Monday s event will also be major sources of campaign money for whomever they in the end endorse Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist
