NJ and CA Primary Election Preview

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As we segue from local politics with the mayor to national politics, some very consequential primary races in two states, New Jersey and California. There are other ones as well around the country, I think six states overall, but we're gonna focus on New Jersey and California. In California, there's an unusually wide open governor's race to replace term-limited governor Gavin Newsom and a three-way contest for mayor of Los Angeles that has tightened dramatically in the final days. The governor's race is being seen as whether or not Democrats can hold a state, they historically dominate on paper, and the LA mayor's race features a reality TV star whose candidacy kind of mirrors the Trumpy populism we're seeing on the national level. And in New Jersey, four Democrats are competing to take on Republican incumbent Tom Kane Jr. In the seventh district, Kane has been absent from his district in DC for a few months now due to an unspecified illness.
But even without that, this is considered a swing district and his tenure is considered vulnerable. The Democrats in that district are striking decidedly moderate tones, I think it's fair to say very different from what's going on in the 12th congressional district in New Jersey, where appropriately maybe 12 Democrats are vying in a wide open primary to replace retiring six-term congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. That's a safely blue central Jersey seat, where candidates are rolling out some very progressive policies. So joining us now from their states are two journalists. Charles Stile is a political columnist at The Record or northjersey.com.
To give us a preview of the competitive Congressional primaries in New Jersey. He was on yesterday, as some of you may remember, but we spent so much time on what's going on at Delaney Hall that we really didn't do the primaries justice. So Charlie is right back with us. He's good enough to do that. And Dustin Gardiner, co-author of Politico's California Playbook, he'll preview what's going on out there. Dustin, welcome to WNYC. Thank you for being up early. Thank you for your time for us. And Charlie, welcome back for day two.

**Charles Stile** (2:26)
Good morning.

**Dustin Gardiner** (2:27)
Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:29)
And listeners, in New Jersey and California, as we sometimes do on this show, we'll invite you now for an informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific New Jersey and California primary day exit poll, electioneering welcome here. Those of you voting in any race in those two states, who are you voting for in any race on your ballots and why, or ask a question of our guests, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
Dustin, let me start with you, give you the courtesy of the outer towner from our standpoint, being our guests. It's not a partisan primary, right? It's an everybody welcome to participate primary for governor? Yeah.

**Dustin Gardiner** (3:19)
So we call it the jungle primary out in California, and there's not a Democratic or Republican primary. It's the top two of any party.
That can lead to a scenario potentially with two Democrats or two Republicans. There was a fear a little bit earlier on when the Democratic field was so unsettled and messy out here that it could possibly be two Republicans. That fear has dissipated, and now we're looking at the prospect of thin odds, but potentially the prospect of two Democrats advancing with Javier Becerra, the former health secretary, and Tom Steyer, a billionaire climate activist. The two of them are in a pretty tight contest with Republican Steve Hilton.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:00)
I saw an article somewhere, it might have been yours on Politico, I don't know, I read a lot this morning, that aligns Steyer with Bernie Sanders, even though Steyer is a billionaire. Would that be accurate or inaccurate?

**Dustin Gardiner** (4:15)
That would be accurate, and Steyer, he's worth several billion dollars, used to be a hedge fund manager, but he's really ran to the left in this campaign and promised a whole host of liberal leading policies from universal health care to free college, tuition, and he's really branded himself with that shift, calling himself the billionaire who wants to raise taxes on billionaires.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:41)
How different is this race than it would have been had Eric Swalwell, Congressman Swalwell, not been scandalized and had to drop out?

**Dustin Gardiner** (4:50)
Well, before Eric Swalwell dropped out after being accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women, he was starting to emerge as the front runner. He had been a popular MSNBC personality, cable news personality and his implosion and exit from the race, really reshuffled the field at half-time in this primary, and what would really surprised a lot of people is how quickly Javier Becerra surged into the front runner status among Democrats. As I said, he's the former health secretary during the Biden administration. He's California's former state attorney general.