Why do low-polling Democrats refuse to leave the governor's race?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Genie, thanks. A reminder the primary is June 2nd. Last day to register to vote is May 18th. If you miss that date, you can still vote with a provisional ballot. Ballots were mailed. People started getting them in early May.

[00:00:12]Drop-off locations are now open.

[00:00:15]In-person vote centers open May 23rd in voter choice counties.

[00:00:21]Time now for all things current California politics. Our guest this week, political analyst Steve Swat.

[00:00:27]Steve, welcome to the program. Good to have you here. We got a lot to cover here today. Uh two debates, one on CNN, one on NBC. Uh did you see anybody score a knockout or get knocked out? Uh the answer, the short answer is no. And there's a lot of reasons for that. And generally these debates, uh the individuals who watch the debates on television, for example, have their their pre-existing biases. They're people they like already. They like their positions. And so those biases are simply reinforced uh by the candidates during the debate. And so usually you don't have a lot of movement. You have some perhaps, but not a big overall of the of the of the race. And uh it's it's almost like uh that uh line from a Simon & Garfunkel song, people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. I think a lot of people tune out everyone else that they don't care for when they watch these debates. So, uh there are three candidates on the Democratic side who were sort of uh Thurman, Villaraigosa, and Mahan who are polling relatively low. Your thoughts on them staying in and even not endorsing anyone to this moment?

[00:01:34]Well, they stay in for a number of reasons. One, you have to realize that politicians have big egos. And so they don't want to be seen as a as a loser.

[00:01:42]And so they want to at least continue and hope that lightning might strike. I mean, certainly lightning struck uh Xavier Becerra, for example. He was uh couldn't even qualify for one of the debates cuz his polling was so low. And after Swalwell dropped out, he picked up. And look where he is. He's near the top. And so that's one thing they hold on to. The other thing is that look at Matt Mahan, he's 43 years old. He has a future in politics ahead of him. He is building up name ID as he stays in this race. He is building up his donor base.

[00:02:12]And so when it comes time for him to run for another statewide or major office, he has sort of a head start.

[00:02:19]Now, as we all know, California is an insurance challenged state. The insurance commissioner job is up. Can someone who wins this really have a say so in helping Californians solve this energy quagmire we're in? As a matter of fact, yes. And if you go back to 1988, Californians approved Proposition 103 and that called for an elected insurance commissioner who has pretty broad authority over the insurance industry.

[00:02:48]If an insurer wants to increase rates, that insurer has to go to the insurance commissioner and verify exactly what they want and why it would not be a negative impact for the consumers. And the decision is made by the insurance commissioner. Now, in the last 8 years, Ricardo Lara, who has been the insurance commissioner, has agreed to most of the rates. But a major rate increase that he vetoed was in February of 2025 right after the LA fires when State Farm came to him and said, "We want to increase rates by 22%." He said, "No, I can't justify that. You can't have it."

[00:03:23]All right, so we'll see what happens with that. That's a very key position as we all try to figure out who we're going to vote for. Steve Swat, all things California politics. Steve, thank you.

[00:03:33]My pleasure.