A new SurveyUSA poll in California shows Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential field with 25%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 21%, Bernie Sanders at 18%, Kamala Harris at 17% and Pete Buttigieg at 6%.
All 19 other Democratic candidates get 3% combined
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tells Yashar Ali that he has decided to sign a bill that would require all presidential and gubernatorial candidates to submit five years of tax returns in order to qualify for the primary ballot in California.
“This is unquestionably a bill directed toward and inspired by President Trump’s refusal to release copies of his tax returns. When Newsom signs the bill today, California will become the first state to require such a disclosure by law.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in California finds Kamala Harris leading the Democratic presidential field with 23%, followed by Joe Biden at 21%, Bernie Sanders at 18% and Elizabeth Warren at 16%.
Trailing far behind are Pete Buttigieg at 3% and Andrew Yang at 2%. There are four Democratic contenders with 1% and 15 candidates scoring less than 1%.
Also interesting: 45% say that Biden has the best chance of beating President Trump, with 12% for Sanders, 11% for Harris and 8% for Warren.
A new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll in California finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 22%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 18%, Bernie Sanders at 17%, Kamala Harris at 13% and Pete Buttigieg at 10%.
No other candidate topped 3%, and many received less than half a point of support.
Said pollster Mark DiCamillo: “Our poll indicates that the contest is a wide-open affair, with five candidates in double digits and none dominating.”
Key finding: “Harris has a potential lifeline as the candidate voters list most often as their second choice. She gets that nod from 21% of the primary voters. Warren also does well on that measure, at 17%. Biden and Sanders are at 12%, suggesting they may have more trouble expanding their appeal.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in California finds Joe Biden is the leader of the Democratic pack with 26% support, followed by Bernie Sanders at 18%, Kamala Harris at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 7% and Elizabeth Warren at 7%.
Los Angeles Times: “The moving of California’s 2020 presidential primary to March 3 — nipping at the heels of the four traditional early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — is the latest bid to play with the calendar in hopes of gaining more electoral relevance. This will be the fifth time since 1992 the state has moved its presidential primary. It’s bounced from June, March, February and back again.”
“The perpetual tinkering underscores how California just can’t seem to shake its political inferiority complex.”
“The California Republican Party elected Jessica Millan Patterson as its new chair Sunday, making her the first woman and first Latina to lead the 140-year-old organization,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“Patterson has long-standing ties with the party’s deep-pocketed donors as executive director of California Trailblazers, an organization that trains Republican candidates. She has extensive experience in the field, having worked on GOP campaigns for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2010 gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and 2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.”
Politico: “Of course, every state is in better economic shape than it was during the Great Recession, but California has enjoyed its renaissance while pursuing policies Republicans associate with economic ruin. It has an $11-an-hour minimum wage, scheduled to rise to $15 by 2023. Its unusually aggressive implementation of Obamacare since 2013 has reduced its uninsured rate from 17 percent to just 7 percent.”
“Its ambitious clean energy and climate policies in many ways inspired the Green New Deal; the state is committed to generating 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2045, and its stringent fuel-efficiency standards help explain why it’s home to half the nation’s electric vehicles. In general, California is flourishing while pursuing the exact opposite of the policies Trump is pursuing in Washington.”
The Hill: “Traditionally, candidates have hunkered down in Des Moines and Manchester, hoping that a victory in the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary would jumpstart their campaigns.”
“But in 2020, voters in California and Texas along with seven other states will head to the polls on March 3 — exactly one month after the Iowa caucuses and just a few days after the South Carolina primary.”
“The shift could lead some candidates, particularly those focused on winning over African-American or Hispanic voters, to put their focus on California instead of the smaller, whiter and more conservative states.”
Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom (D) is calling for the resignation of California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman over charges of sexual misconduct, the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Bauman took a leave of absence from his position overseeing the Democratic Party on Monday, after one of his deputies initiated the process to remove him.”
“A Democrat has all but officially won what’s considered one of the most important local races this election, as Republican Rob Poythress on Saturday conceded to Democrat Anna Caballero in the race for the Senate District 12 seat,” the Fresno Bee reports.
“Once her victory is sealed, Caballero would give Democrats in the state Legislature a supermajority in both houses, just as the state also elected Democrat Gavin Newsom as governor.“
Politico: “For almost two years, California was seen as the key to Democrats’ quest for the House majority. Turns out, they didn’t need it.”
“The party will likely have flipped roughly 30 House seats — it needed 23 to win control — without posting any gains in California at all. But Democrats seem likely to add to that total once California counts all its votes.”
“How many more seats will Democrats win? It could be awhile before we know for sure. Voters in California could postmark their ballots as late as Tuesday, and it will take weeks for all those votes to be tallied.”
“As of Wednesday morning, Democratic candidates are only leading in three of the seven targeted California races. But late ballots in California tend to trend Democratic, so more could pull ahead in the coming days.”
CNBC: “Republicans in California had rallied around a gas tax repeal known as Proposition 6, but the measure is now at risk of failing, according to a new poll. That could mean trouble for some GOP candidates who pinned hopes on gaining votes from supporters of the ballot initiative.”
“Top House Republican leaders have been contributors to the gas tax repeal effort, hoping it will boost GOP voter turnout in tight congressional races in California.”
“The California Supreme Court decided to remove from the November ballot a measure aimed at dividing California into three states,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
In a brief order, the court said it acted “because significant questions have been raised regarding the proposition’s validity and because we conclude that the potential harm in permitting the measure to remain on the ballot outweighs the potential harm in delaying the proposition to a future election.”
“California’s 168-year run as a single entity, hugging the continent’s edge for hundreds of miles and sprawling east across mountains and desert, could come to an end next year — as a controversial plan to split the Golden State into three new jurisdictions qualified Tuesday for the Nov. 6 ballot,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“If a majority of voters who cast ballots agree, a long and contentious process would begin for three separate states to take the place of California, with one primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south. Completion of the radical plan — far from certain, given its many hurdles at judicial, state and federal levels — would make history.”
“It would be the first division of an existing U.S. state since the creation of West Virginia in 1863.”
Washington Post: “Confused and frustrated, a growing number of Democrats are blaming their own party as they seek to avert a drubbing in Tuesday’s congressional primaries here that would leave their candidates shut out of the November ballot in some races — and with a narrower path to win control of the House of Representatives.”
“Candidates are scrambling to set themselves apart, Democratic groups are urging unity to gain control of the House — and many voters are wondering how to contend with the despair they would feel if Democrats were locked out in this liberal state.”
“Independents have surpassed Republicans to become the second-largest voting bloc in California, according to a firm that analyzes county voter registration information for campaigns,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Political Data Inc. on Tuesday released its latest count showing that voters registered with no party preference now outnumber Republicans by about 73,000 in California. The company regularly collects raw voter files from county registrars to maintain an updated database of the state’s 19 million voters.”
Playbook: “California Republicans have been sliding into obscurity for some time. But this seems particularly ominous in the long term for House Republicans, who have 14 seats in California.”
First Read: “On the GOP side, President Trump has endorsed Republican John Cox for governor, trying to unite California Republicans around a single candidate, which could help drive turnout in the House and downballot races… In addition, House Republicans have opened an office in Southern California to spur GOP turnout in the three key House districts.”
“On the Democratic side, the DCCC has been airing TV ads both in favor of their preferred candidates in these crowded primaries (see here and here) and against Republican candidates (see here and here). And while House Democrats want two Democrats at the top of the ticket for governor – to drive Dem turnout and depress the GOP’s – gubernatorial frontrunner Gavin Newsom prefers a Republican opponent, since someone like fellow Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa represents a greater general-election threat than either of the two leading GOP candidates (Cox and Travis Allen).”
“What’s fascinating about all of these races is that they’re essentially margin-of-error contests to make the Top 2, where candidates in positions No. 2, No. 3 and even No. 4 are separated by just a handful of points in the public and private polling. All of which makes the June 5 primaries – and the strategies going into them – quite a game.”
Vox: California’s “top two” primary chaos, explained.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."
-- Chuck Todd, host of "Meet the Press"
"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."
-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"
-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.