{"id":436,"date":"2026-06-15T13:06:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=436"},"modified":"2026-06-15T13:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:06:36","slug":"californias-gubernatorial-primary-was-a-contest-to-see-which-democrat-could-pander-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=436","title":{"rendered":"California’s Gubernatorial Primary Was A Contest To See Which Democrat Could Pander Harder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In our cynical era, large swaths of the American public believe politicians just say what people want to hear to get elected. The recently concluded primary election to succeed Gavin Newsom as California\u2019s governor epitomizes this theory.<\/p>\n

Read more California Is About To Make It More Dangerous To Say No To \u2018Trans Kids\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

After the campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., imploded over sexual assault allegations, two Democrats who remained fought to assure themselves a spot in November\u2019s general election by pandering to different groups \u2014 one to corporate interests, the other to woke interests. Both efforts brought to mind a quote from Yes, Minister<\/em>, often attributed (probably incorrectly) to a politician and revolutionary in 19th-century France: \u201cI am their leader. I must follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steyer: Playing to Woke Groups<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first candidate, billionaire Tom Steyer, thought that embracing \u201cpeak woke\u201d would offset his plutocratic background. As I noted in January, Steyer embraced a single-payer health care system for California. In doing so, he followed the tradition of Newsom, who pledged he would get single-payer done during his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018, only to allow the issue to fizzle out upon taking office.<\/p>\n

His endorsement of socialized medicine moved Steyer significantly to the left compared to his (failed) 2020 presidential campaign. He claimed, \u201cBernie Sanders was right. We need single-payer health care. \u2026 In 2019, I didn\u2019t think we needed single-payer health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

A post-election analysis of his campaign noted that the flip-flop on health care represented just one of the ways Steyer pandered to the left:<\/p>\n

\n

For the nurses, that was single-payer health care. For environmentalists, it was breaking up utility monopolies. And for the California Teachers Association, which endorsed Steyer after Swalwell\u2019s exit, it was raising corporate property taxes through a special election \u2014 a costly fight that, for some, came with the unspoken expectation that Steyer could help pay for it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The analysis continued by comparing Steyer\u2019s campaign to a political version of The Oprah Winfrey Show<\/em> \u2014 \u201cYou get a car! You get a car! \u2026 Everybody gets a car!\u201d \u2014 which \u201cleft people debating where [Steyer\u2019s] conviction ended and his calculation began.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becerra: Party Apparatchik\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Contrast Steyer\u2019s attempt to appeal to leftist interest groups with the campaign of former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Days after I had drafted my article noting Becerra\u2019s long history of supporting single-payer, the candidate suddenly decided he didn\u2019t support the issue after all. And you\u2019ll never guess where he announced he had arrived at that conclusion:<\/p>\n

Read more Media Head For Fainting Couch Over White House UFC Fight After Shrugging At Topless Trans Twerker<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra has softened his support for\u00a0a single-payer healthcare system\u00a0as he secures endorsements in his bid to be California\u2019s next governor, most recently from the powerful doctors\u2019 group, the California Medical Association, which officially backed him this week. \u2026 \u201cHe said very clearly that, at this point, he wasn\u2019t supportive of single payer,\u201d said Dr. Ren\u00e9 Bravo, president of the\u00a0California Medical Association.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article noted that Becerra\u2019s sudden rise in the polls after Swalwell\u2019s implosion \u201cforced him to clarify the nuances of his policy positions, including single-payer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClarify the nuances\u201d puts it too politely. Suddenly, when his candidacy went from also-ran status to potentially viable, someone who had as recently as March 23 posted that \u201cI\u2019m ready to go further as Governor and deliver single-payer health care for our state\u201d no longer believed in achieving it while in office \u2014 at least not when there was political advantage to be gained by flip-flopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thus, Becerra\u2019s campaign website got scrubbed of references to single-payer. And business interests contributed millions to boost Becerra\u2019s prospects in the closing stretch of the primary campaign, while simultaneously running ads bashing Steyer.<\/p>\n

Biden Redux?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n

The end result in California looked something like Biden\u2019s miraculous rise from the political dead around the time of the South Carolina primary in 2020. That year, the leadership of the Democrat Party consolidated in record time around Biden \u2014 a longtime party functionary with a not-particularly-noteworthy history \u2014 because they needed someone, anyone, to combat the rise of avowed socialist Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

This time around, Becerra has taken on the role of Biden. By simply functioning as an empty (or nearly empty) vessel for the party machine, Democrats hope Becerra can defeat Republican Steve Hilton in the general election this November, just as Biden recaptured the White House for Democrats in 2020.<\/p>\n

But Biden\u2019s sole term in office didn\u2019t exactly end well, and Becerra has a history of incompetence in office. All of this means Democrats should be careful what they wish for in the Golden State. They just might get it.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Sophie Of Dundee\u2019 Has Been Vindicated, But It Won\u2019t Change Anything In Britain<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats should be careful what they wish for in the Golden State. They just might get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[1081,521,428,205,73,524,16,1084,1674,1079,1080,817],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-california","tag-democrat-party","tag-democrats","tag-elections","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-joe-biden","tag-politics","tag-single-payer-health-care","tag-steve-hilton","tag-tom-steyer","tag-xavier-becerra"],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia’s Gubernatorial Primary Was A Contest To See Which Democrat Could Pander Harder - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=436\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California’s Gubernatorial Primary Was A Contest To See Which Democrat Could Pander Harder - Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Democrats should be careful what they wish for in the Golden State. 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