Here’s the latest news out of California today:
Democrat Gavin Newsom has a dominant lead over Republican John Cox in California’s race for governor, a contest in which a significant number of voters appear to have cast ballots strategically to sway the outcome of the state’s top-two primary, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
Forty-five percent of registered voters who said they planned to vote in the November race intend to support Newsom, while Cox won the support of 28% of those who plan to cast ballots, according to the poll. Twenty-seven percent of those voters were undecided.
The post-primary survey also indicated that some Californians are adapting their behavior in response to the state’s relatively new top-two primary, where the pair of candidates who get the most votes move on to the general election regardless of party.
Three out of 10 Californians who voted for Cox said they did so primarily because they wanted to ensure a Republican was on the November ballot, as opposed to supporting him because he reflected their beliefs and values, or some other reason, the survey found.
And in case you were worried that Democrats weren’t united after the primary:
After an often-bitter primary campaign for governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom joined one-time rival Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday for a friendly, upbeat political event in downtown Los Angeles.
And Republican John Cox, who will face off against Newsom in the fall campaign, didn’t like it a bit.
A release from the Cox campaign argued that “it wasn’t so long ago they were accusing each other of being part of the political establishment that created California’s problems,” and that having the two Democrats make nice to each other doesn’t fix the troubles they were complaining about.
Maybe not, but that breakfast at the Homegirl Cafe on Villaraigosa’s home turf — and the sidewalk news conference afterward — was an example of politics as usual, in the best sense of the phrase.
The campaign “wasn’t personal. Both of us love this state,” the former Los Angeles mayor said. “We agree on a lot more than we disagree on.”
Newsom in turn had nothing but praise for Villaraigosa, saying he had known him for decades.
“I have extraordinary respect and admiration for the former mayor,” the lieutenant governor said.
People can be forgiven for thinking that the “respect and admiration” was in short supply during the campaign, which at times got plenty personal.
Villaraigosa and his supporters often styled the former San Francisco mayor as a wealthy “Davos Democrat,” more interested in hobnobbing with the elite in such places as the annual economic conference in Switzerland than settling down to work on the tough problems of California.
Newsom, for his part, accused Villaraigosa during a May debate in San Joseof wanting to “monetize your public service” by doing consultant work for Herbalife, a supplement and weight loss company “that was fined $200 million for predatory practices against communities of color.”
But in partisan politics, those harsh words on the campaign trail are typically forgiven, if not always forgotten, as soon as the election results are in. That’s even more likely when the former opponents can join to focus their fire on someone else.
“This is a significant moment in our campaign to help unify the Democratic Party and to unify it against John Cox, (President) Trump and Trump-ism,” Newsom said.
Villaraigosa, who endorsed Newsom on election night, was more direct.
“A vote for John Cox is a vote for Donald Trump,” he said, standing behind a “Gavin for Governor” sign.
And yes, Cox is very Trumpian:
California Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox stated that he is opposed to separating children from their families at the Southern border and echoed President Trump's call for congressional action on the issue.
"I'm against separating parents and children, I'm a father. I have four daughters. That's a congressional problem," Cox said during a Monday rally in Sacramento. "I hope we get a congressional solution very soon."
This is a sentiment expressed by President Trump himself, who blamed congressional Democrats for the recent family separations at the border.
"Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!" Trump tweeted on Saturday.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly stated that they are merely enforcing pre-existing laws that mandate separating children from their parents at the border, however the Washington Post's fact checkers gave this claim a "Four Pinocchios" rating.
By the way, Newsom called out Cox’s BFF’s bull shit:
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom jumped into the discussion with a tweet, saying Trump is using children as "bargaining chips" and "it's sick."
Newsom, who is the Democratic nominee in California's 2018 gubernatorial election, says Trump is using immigration policy to get funding for a wall he wants to build at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Trump tried to use DREAMers as bargaining chips," he wrote, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program the president tried to dismantle. "That didn't work."
He added, "Now he's threatening a shutdown and using children — toddlers, 8-month-old babies — as bargaining chips to get funding for a useless wall he claimed Mexico would pay for. It's sick."
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