It’s supposed to be a race for governor, but candidates and voters seem disengaged

The shortage and costs of housing are, by any rational standard, one of California’s most pressing issues, which is why several thousand advocates of affordable shelter gathered in Sacramento this week to ponder potential solutions.

Housing California, the event’s sponsor, invited candidates for governor to participate in a panel discussion of how they would approach the housing crisis.

Neither of the two Republican candidates, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, appeared, which was not surprising given the left-leaning tenor of the event.

It was, however, odd that only four of the eight Democratic candidates showed up, since it was a terrific opportunity for them to impress a large audience of political activists, with just a few weeks remaining before voters begin marking and mailing their ballots for the June 2 primary election.

Of the four who participated in the housing panel, just one candidate, billionaire Tom Steyer, is in the top tier of candidates, as revealed in a new poll by the UC-Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, with just barely 10% support.

The other three — state school Superintendent Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Controller Betty Yee — collectively garnered just 6% support among the sample of voters, with Thurmond and Yee at 1% each.

Although California is a thoroughly blue state, the two Republicans were 1 and 2 in the poll, thus feeding worries among Democratic leaders that they could wind up that way in the June 2 voting if none of the Democrats catches fire.

Among the Democrats, Congressman Eric Swalwell and former Congresswoman Katie Porter polled highest at 13% each, followed by Steyer at 10%, former Attorney General Xavier Becerra at 5%, with Villaraigosa and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan at 4%.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll, told the Los Angeles Times he is stunned by how fragmented and disengaged voters are about choosing the state’s next governor.

“This is historic for me,” DiCamillo said, “and especially given that none of the candidates have really a positive image rating with voters, also startling. I mean, perhaps one of the reasons why voters are disengaged, they’re just not enthusiastic about any of the candidates. They’re kind of sleepwalking to this election.”

The lethargic nature of the contest is also demonstrated by the inability of the California Federation of Unions to settle on one Democrat, instead giving endorsements to four of the eight.

One could say, therefore, that the passive attitude of candidates vis-a-vis this week’s housing conference captures the broader lack of enthusiasm among candidates and voters.

This should be a referendum on how California deals with not only housing and homelessness but the many other issues that Gavin Newsom will leave behind when he exits the office next January, almost certainly embarking on a quest for the White House.

However, the gubernatorial campaign so far has revealed very few differences among the eight Democratic candidates on those issues, nor any truly novel proposals. In response to questions about housing, homelessness, health care and living costs, the four who did participate in Thursday’s panel generally responded that they would spend a lot more money and impose new taxes on corporations and wealthy Californians to pay for it.

Given the paucity of new ideas and the overall lethargy, one could almost hope that Hilton and Bianco do finish 1-2 and give the state a Republican governor for the first time in two decades. The Capitol conflict that would ensue as a GOP governor battles with a Legislature dominated by Democrats would at least be interesting.

It would be karmic justice for a Democratic Party that apparently is incapable of generating enough energy to power a light bulb.