Endorsement: Weber, Ma, Kounalakis and Newsom deserve new terms and stronger opponents in California

The editorial board operates independently from the U-T newsroom but holds itself to similar ethical standards. We base our editorials and endorsements on reporting, interviews and rigorous debate, and strive for accuracy, fairness and civility in our section. Disagree? Let us know.

Let’s be real. Republican candidates are rarely a factor in elections when well-funded Democrats run for state office in California. The party’s dominance in the Golden State is such that it has taken extraordinary exceptions — like the candidacy of movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger — to make a shift in power seem possible. When intriguing but little-known candidates emerge — such as aerospace engineer turned economist Neel Kashkari, the 2014 GOP candidate for governor — they are often dismissed by most voters. Imagine seeing Kashkari — who played a key role in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations’ ultimately successful response to the Great Recession and is now president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis — take on the Sacramento establishment on housing, water, the cost of living and more. That’s all you can do.

The reality in California 2022 is that the Democratic incumbents in four high-profile jobs are shoo-ins. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board endorses each — they are the best candidates — but they also don’t have any impressive opponents.

Editorials

2022 election endorsements from The San Diego Union-Tribune

These are the candidates we recommend on the June 7 primary ballot for national, state and local races.

May 17, 2022

First up is Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the former San Diego Assembly member and San Diego State professor. She is a California icon and should be a national one as well. She overcame huge obstacles to get the nation’s largest state to adopt unprecedented police reforms. In her new role, she has been a passionate and effective advocate of making voting easier and more accessible than ever. Weber has been dinged, fairly, for her department’s spotty record on updating campaign contributions on its website. But her commitment to getting more people to cast ballots, more people to trust elections and more people to value voting is inspirational. She deserves a full term and as the lone Democrat in a seven-person race, she will get it. She has raised $1 million more than her only rival with any money.

Treasurer Fiona Ma, a former San Francisco Assembly member and a hard-charging reformer as chair of the state Board of Equalization, is also more qualified than her opponents. Ma faces sexual harassment allegations — which she denies while noting the accuser has missed two depositions — and she faces criticism for having taxpayers pay for her lodging while working in Sacramento. But the certified public accountant says she has reconsidered staying in Sacramento hotels on the taxpayer dime, and she makes a strong case that she has been a vigilant overseer of billions of dollars of state taxes, bonds and payments. A second term seems warranted — and destined. In a four-person field, she’s raised $1.6 million more than her closest competitor.

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, previously a Northern California housing executive and U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is also an easy choice for re-election, over seven challengers. She offered smart insights on a range of subjects in our interview. Though the lieutenant governor is on the oversight boards of the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems, the office has few strong official powers. But it can be a springboard. Having raised $3 million in the race so far, compared to $6,000 for the only other candidate raising money, she’s a lock. And there’s already speculation that she (and Ma, and many others) will run for an open governor’s seat in the next election.

Which brings us to Gov. Gavin Newsom. In two interviews with the editorial board in 2018, the then-gubernatorial candidate had an unusually gifted command of very complex issues. But since taking office, Newsom has done little to address California’s most profound problems, only starting with the interlinked issues of poverty, housing and homelessness. Perhaps no politician alive could make progress on this front, especially during a pandemic.

In 2018, Newsom acknowledged our board’s years of knocking then-Gov. Jerry Brown for being apathetic about the mediocre way state government handled so many key functions, suggesting he’d be different. Brown’s second go-around as California governor will go down in history for his shrewd handling of state finances, but not for his general governance. By contrast, Newsom has benefited from an extraordinary boom in state revenue that has left a historic nearly $100 billion surplus. He hasn’t had to make tough spending decisions like Brown. But, like Brown, he has not made tough policy decisions. In 2018, he spoke passionately about many crucial, high-profile issues. The need for a massive boost in housing construction to bring down its cost and to alleviate poverty. The need for education reform and how it had worked so well in a heavily unionized state like Massachusetts. The need to beef up the state’s energy grid during a climate emergency that created terrifying wildfires. The need for realistic business plans for the state high-speed rail project. The need for criminal justice reform.

Last year, our editorial board strongly opposed his recall, citing his generally steady response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the failure of recall proponents to show California shouldn’t just wait until his re-election campaign to consider a course correction. That campaign is here, but instead of a clash of ideas, Newsom is running against 25 people no one really knows — and has raised $7.1 million more than his closest political foe. He’s clearly the best of this bunch, but imagine if there were a candidate with ideas that might spur more action and urgency and progress from the governor. That’s all you can do.