Gavin Newsom is an empty suit, sometimes filled with "bright new ideas" that usually benefit the sort of people who fund his campaigns. He makes nice noises, but there's no there there. San Franciscans have seen this act.
Antonio Villaraigosa apparently is running to Gavin's right. The former Los Angeles mayor has been endorsed by the police unions because he has supported high levels of incarceration and opposes reform of the cash bail system that keeps low level offenders locked up before trial.
They are both Democrats. This is California, after all.
Gavin leads in the polls. This will almost certainly go two rounds as these two will come out "top two" in June and get to bang away at each other some more until November.
Our political system is broken. It's all about empty suits (can be pantsuit lol) and images. Yuck
ReplyDeleteWe have to have some perspective: the system has always produced a preponderance of empty suits. Politicians are human. The system also favors glitz over substance.
ReplyDeleteWhat they do however depends to a considerable extent on what we let them do.
I think it comes back to how elections are paid for and it's gotten worse. If we had them limited to so much for each candidate and it came from the government, there'd be less influence based on money. Now they can choose to get gov't money if they don't take private but then there are the PACs. It's a bummer of a system. A lot won't run for how nasty it's gotten.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Hawaii's upcoming face-off between incumbent David Ige and Colleen Hanabusa. Neither one is glitzy like a Gavin Newsom and they're politically similar. Ige might be hurt by his handling of the false missile alert in January, maybe to the point of being voted out in the primary, the way his predecessor Neil Abercrombie was in 2014, and Hanabusa is dogged by her ties to rail, seen by many here as a debacle.
ReplyDeleteAnother recent development was the resignation of Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui, who felt he had little to do in that office. Replacing him was Attorney General Doug Chin (best known on the mainland for challenging the Trump travel ban); Chin himself is running for the congressional seat Hanabusa currently holds.