Sacramento – Katie Porter never carves words. She is obvious and spoken and can be dynamic. Can she be elected governor? More importantly, can she rule?

Answer to Question 1: She has a good shot based on the vote – if Kamala Harris doesn’t run.

Answering to Question 2: Who knows? At least she didn’t look like risk aversion. She won’t let go of the tough battle. But that doesn’t necessarily mean success. And she never had an executive office.

The 51-year-old former Orange County lawmaker stepped into the 2026 California governor race last week, joining the overwhelming field of Democratic candidates trying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

When Harris enters the race, most of it is scattered in the wind. She is a Joker card for the contest. The failed 2024 Democratic presidential candidate said he would decide whether to run by the end of the summer.

The idea in the political world is that Harris’s name’s familiarity and fundraising ability puts her out of reach of current candidates and others who may likely run. The former vice president holds a long record of successful elections in her native state, winning the race for the US Senate, the state attorney and the San Francisco district attorney.

But Harris has widespread support among California Democratic voters, and I suspect it is shallow. Just the ankles. The then Senator bombed while running for president in 2020, and was gruesome in his most notable home state before stopping by before the primary. Last year she hit Republican Donald Trump in California, but wasn’t as biased as Joe Biden did in 2020.

By next year’s election, California Democrats could be much more eloquent than President Trump.

However, Porter, who now teaches at UC Irvine’s law school, has long been Harris’ ally. The power of attorney at the time chose a consumer protection lawyer in 2012 to monitor a multi-billion-dollar legal settlement with major banks over household seizures.

Porter has since won three House elections in competitive districts. And they won prominent national elections by using whiteboards to simplify complex policy issues.

If Harris gets in, Porter will almost certainly be out of the governor’s race.

Her entry “will have the effect of saving a vision that is closer to the democratic side,” Porter said long before announcing her candidacy. And she repeated that last week at a campaign event. [Harris] I have decided to participate in this race. I think it will have a very serious impact on everyone in it, including me. ”

But Porter told me, “I’m not waiting around. People are hungry for leadership and I’m worried about what will come about our way. California wants and deserves it.”

The fight is especially against Trump, Porter emphasizes.

“As governor, when Trump hurts Californians, I will never step back,” Porter swears in the video of the announcement. “Whether it maintains disaster relief, or whether it attacks our rights and our community, or ruins working families and benefits ourselves and his peers.”

Newsom has retreated from facing Trump directly since the Los Angeles wildfire, angering the revenge president and trying to avoid putting the federal relief fund in danger. The governor also appears to be heading to the Political Center to position himself for the 2028 presidential bid.

Credit to Porter that Harris doesn’t wait for a decision. It’s politically clever. After last year’s Senate race failed, it will raise funds, organize campaigns, and give voters time to reintroduce them.

Of course, some Democrats declared their candidate a few months ago and have not reached anywhere. There are two reasons for this. They are not particularly appealing to voters. And voters are not interested yet. The political focus of the people is on the chaos created by Trump.

If Harris intervenes, Lieutenant Colonel Eleni Kunarakis will likely pivot from the race from the governor’s race to the state’s treasurer. Other likely to be ejected include former state legislative leader Toni Atkins, former state controller Betty Yi and state school chief Tony Thurmond.

However, he claims he is not former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaragoza.

“I made it very clear,” Villaraigosa told me. “I’m there to win. It doesn’t matter who comes in. I don’t know why there’s a debate about that.”

Well, one reason is that Villaraigosa hasn’t held a selective science position in nearly 12 years and is out of the public spotlight. And he finished his distant third run against Newsom in Governor Primary in 2018. He is 72 people and voters may be looking for a younger person.

However, Villaraigosa does not require a training wheel in Sacramento, which was an effective meeting speaker in the late 1990s.

“I think people have the pulse where they are,” he said. “They are looking for abilities – not just for the people they are talking to…

“We need to start building again: housing, transportation infrastructure, energy grids. … They say, “get rid of the gas stove and remove the gas water heater.” But they’re not building anything [electricity] Power lines. ”

Porter says it’s about the same. Like Villaraigosa, she backed anti-crime proposal 36 last year to ignore democratic facilities and boost penalties for retail theft.

She has called for reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act, which could hinder construction projects for years. “The goal is to protect the environment. It’s not to make things slower and more expensive,” she said.

Because they didn’t solve the state’s problems, “Califans hear a lot of excuses from elected officials,” she said in the video of the announcement. “What a bunch of B… What we need is a willingness to take on new ideas, dangerous leaders and their corrupt enablers.”

Porter may at least put his interest in lesser known races for the country’s most populous governor.

What else should I read?

Must see: California’s undocumented healthcare costs are billions more than estimated, putting pressure on Democrats to consider cutting
TK: With friends like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, Newsom may speak himself to political death
Rimes Special: If Trump cuts Medicaid, this California Republican House seat would be at risk.

Until next week,
George Skeleton

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