Democrats are at a Huge Crossroads in California Governor’s Race

If Tom Steyer wins, that could send positive shock waves through the Democratic party

By Norman Solomon, The Guardian

The next governor of deep-blue California will almost certainly be a Democrat. But what kind of Democrat?

The establishment favorite for overseeing the world’s fourth-largest economy, Xavier Becerra, has trod a traditional path. As governor, based on past performance, he would keep his party and the state on the rutted road of corporate-friendly liberalism.

Becerra’s top Democratic rival, Tom Steyer, is a threat to the status quo in a state where 7 million people live under the official poverty line and child poverty rates are among the highest in the country. While Silicon Valley and AI boom, deprivation is widespread.

Steyer promises to upend corporate power and give California a sustained progressive jolt. If he wins, the country’s largest state party will probably go through a major ideological challenge. During the last 15 years, while Democrats have controlled the legislature and the governor’s office, they have avoided disrupting the status quo. State budgets have routinely failed to protect low-income Californians.

The California Democratic party is a corporate entity, as I saw up close for 10 years while on its state central committee. The party’s center of gravity is occupied by California’s two Democratic senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, mainstream liberals who rock few corporate boats and vote in harmony with the military-industrial complex that has massive footholds in the state.