CALIFORNICATION

"Oh, California, I'm coming home Oh, make me feel good rock 'n roll band I'm your biggest fan" - Joni Mitchell, California

California is either the fourth or fifth largest economy in the world depending on which day you look. It is the state with the largest population of any state in the union. It is the home of Silicon Valley which is far more than a television sit-com but is the seat of much of the innovation that has driven the economy of the world in the past forty years. California is where the people who wanted to make movies and money moved when they realized they could do it year round in the land of the setting sun and didn’t have to go inside in the cold, damp winters of New Jersey. It also allowed them to escape the dictatorial dominance of Thomas Edison’s stranglehold on all things movie. As much as the culture of the United States is given shape and form by popular culture California is where much of that culture goes to grow. The seeds are spawned everywhere but sunny California, where the girls wear flowers in their hair, is where they get their big girl shoes and begin to spread their influence.

California has experienced three major growth spurts and each of them had to do with the making of money. It is what we do. The gold rush of the 1850’s, the turn toward movie theaters away from the stages of vaudeville in the 1920’s and 30’s, and the need to manufacture a war machine to fight the war in the Pacific during and after WWII. California is at the forefront of natural disasters directly related to climate change. The population is a polyglot of personalities who went west to get away from the dust bowl of the depression, to ‘make it in the movies,” to find themselves, in the existential sense, in the drug and music fueled sixties and seventies, or to found a tech start up, sell it, and retire at the age of 39. In other words it is driven by the dream. And the politics reflect that confusion.

The state has had one governor from the entertainment business who became president. Another governor from the same business who can’t because he wasn’t born here, although he certainly created himself on screens across the world in front of our excited eyes. Only one president was born in California and he happens to be the only president to have been forced to resign from office. Now the great State of California is going to elect another governor from a field that includes a former sheriff, a Fox News host, a billionaire, a former congresswoman, Joe Biden’s head of Health and Human Services, and two former mayors. One from the third largest city in the state the other from the largest city in the state. Two Republicans, the Fox News guy and the sheriff, and five Democrats. Those are the seven that qualified for the debate last night. The primary, in which all seven will be on the ballot, is on June 2nd and the real crazy thing is that the top two vote getters will face off in November in the general election while the five who finish behind them will have to find another job. With five Democrats and two Republicans running it is entirely possible that the state that has a reputation for being blue and even progressive in its leanings could, possibly, end up with a contest between two Republicans come November. Not that the state has not had Republican governors. The one who became president and the one who had an Austrian accent were both Republicans. The president who had to resign ran for governor but he lost.

You should all be able to figure out the names of those who I have been admittedly coy about identifying. I will now talk for a minute about the two that I like. Both Democrats. Doh!? Katie Porter was an outspoken, aggressive, clever, and incisive representative when she was in the House. Tough and mindful when grilling people who testified in front of the Oversight and Reform Committee. When she resigned her seat to run for the Senate in 2025 I was sad but looked forward to hearing her voice in the Senate. Unfortunately she lost in the crazy primary to Adam Schiff, the mild mannered totally ineffective Senator from California, and Steve Garvey, the baseball player and the best reason to root against the Dodgers. She was leading the pack in this gubernatorial race until a video surfaced of her yelling at a staffer in her office. It is the kind of thing that makes one wonder what the public response would have been if a man had done the same thing. She should have known better than to lose her temper with a hot mic and camera focused on her. She has apologized but it still hangs over her when people have the conversation about who will be he best governor. Funny how a convicted felon and a man who claims he can grab women by the genitals because he’s a star can be President but a woman who yells at a staffer for interrupting a taped interview can suffer for it. The other Democrat that I like, oddly enough, is the billionaire Tom Steyer. The nation got a glimpse of Steyer during the 2020 presidential campaign where he seemed weak and did not have the charisma to carry his message beyond the edge of the platform. He is articulate and is considered a progressive. He has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders which would ordinarily be enough for me except that Katie Porter has been endorsed by Elizabeth Warren. Two serious heavy-weights endorsing opposing candidates. If they finish one and two in the primary we could have a very interesting conversation come November.

The elephant who has left the room is Eric Swalwell. Swalwell was a leading candidate and then it came out that he had been accused of “sexual misconduct” and had to drop out. He subsequently resigned from Congress denying everything as “flat out false.” He was an interesting political figure and a consistent opponent of Donald J. Trump but only the man himself can carry that kind of baggage around and still be taken seriously. Why, I’ll never know. The media likes to watch as people go down the drain and Trump is taking a long trip down a very clogged up drain so he is the lead no matter what.