Final week’s main election instructed us that there will probably be little or no drama in November’s common election vis-à-vis California’s statewide places of work. With one potential exception, Democrats will proceed to carry all of them.

As an alternative, voters will probably be pounded with pitches for and towards a clutch of high-dollar poll measures.

Gov. Gavin Newsom. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Legal professional Common Rob Bonta, colleges Supt. Tony Thurmond, and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla will face solely token re-election opposition within the November election.

Insurance coverage Commissioner Ricardo Lara is just not a shoo-in, as a result of he may be dealing with fellow Democrat Marc Levine within the November election. Nevertheless, three Republicans have an opportunity to complete second within the top-two main balloting and if Lara has a GOP foe, he’s a powerful favourite because of a lopsided voter registration benefit.

The one actual query mark is the state controller’s place, which is open as a result of the Democratic incumbent, Betty Yee, is being compelled out by time period limits.

Republican Lanhee Chen, a Stanford College lecturer and former advisor to nationwide GOP figures, has drawn a unprecedented quantity of editorial board assist and can seemingly prime the sector when all votes are counted. Malia Cohen, a Democratic member of the state Board of Equalization, is Chen’s possible November foe and his candidacy is a take a look at of whether or not the GOP has a future on this deeply blue state.

The Huge-Cash Battle Over Sports activities Playing

With the paucity of drama in statewide workplace campaigns, the November election’s main focus will probably be on poll measures, topped by a high-dollar duel over who, if anybody, will management playing on sporting occasions.

Indian tribes that now dominate on line casino playing within the state are divided over whether or not to pursue a tribal measure to restrict sports activities wagering to their casinos, which has already certified for the poll, or focus sources on defeating a rival measure proposed by a coalition of on-line playing firms.

Tribes dedicated to an opposition technique are already broadcasting and streaming advertisements aimed on the on-line betting measure, alleging that it’ll trigger playing dependancy. The opposition coalition plans to put its personal on-line measure on the 2024 poll if it might probably defeat the company proposal.

Proposals to Improve Taxes on Excessive Earners

Sports activities wagering, nonetheless, is just not the one challenge that can face voters. Others more likely to make the poll embrace two measures that will increase earnings taxes on high-income Californians, one for pandemic preparedness and the opposite to subsidize electrical car purchases.

The latter is sponsored largely by Lyft, a serious rideshare company, and has been criticized as a company effort to make taxpayers underwrite a state requirement that Lyft and different firms, resembling Uber, electrify their fleets.

Different pending initiatives would assure state funding for arts and music within the colleges, cut back single-use plastic packaging and impose new staffing necessities on dialysis clinics. Earlier union-backed dialysis measures have failed.

A measure to lift the state’s minimal wage to $18 per hour, sponsored by rich Los Angeles investor Joe Sanberg, would possibly make the poll, however provided that it meets the signature necessities by the June 30 deadline.

Lastly, a referendum would overturn a state ban on flavored tobacco merchandise — the most recent instance of company pursuits turning to the poll to flee new rules imposed by the Legislature.

The initiative and referendum processes have been dropped at California greater than a century in the past as a manner for voters to claim their will over a Legislature then dominated by company pursuits. Nevertheless, they’ve largely advanced — or devolved — into methods for company and different particular pursuits to have their manner, as this 12 months’s crop of poll measures proves anew.

Concerning the Creator

Dan Walters has been a journalist for almost 60 years, spending all however just a few of these years working for California newspapers. He started his skilled profession in 1960, at age 16, on the Humboldt Instances. For extra columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.