Inside Golden State Politics

Eureka! California's Elections Wake Up

• Nancy Boyarsky

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When is old too old to run? Should  we ditch the top two primary?  What's stoking the gubernatorial campaign and the Los Angeles mayor's race? Let's discuss.

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Welcome to another episode of Inside Golden State Politics. I'm Bill Boyarsky, the former city editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and with me is our producer-director, Nancy Boyarsky.

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And I'm Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, political analyst and self-styled media maven, coming to you from Washington's newest swamp, the newly repaired and painted American flag blue at a cost of at least thirteen million dollars, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Listen to what the nonprofit DC-based Cultural Landscape Foundation said in a lawsuit that it's filed to stop the Trump administration's park paint job, and I quote,"Every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered." That observation sort of reflects where our country finds itself today. Every day, the historic character of the United States of America is being further and fundamentally altered. Over to you, Bill.

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Well, Sherry I... the reflecting pool is sort of funny if-- in a way. Here's Trump promising to clean up the swamp in Washington, and he's building his own swamp

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Well, apparently so, at least from the meme.

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at huge, expense. So that's what's involved in cleaning up the swamp. The s-

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Governor

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to home, though, the race for mayor of LA and governorship of California are becoming closer and closer. If you place any credence to various surveys and polls, it's sort of head-to-head with the incumbent Mayor Bass and and a couple other contenders.

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Well,

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think

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Brad who seems to be gaining momentum

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Pratt is gaining in momentum, and xavier Becerra, the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare he's just about even, and the incumbent mayor is ahead. Now what's really something to watch, I think, and I don't know how it's gonna turn out, but the the Times had a very damaging story to Becerra a couple days ago about using material that's already been out there, but see, they kind of put it together in a real powerful way about how his chief of staff and another top aide and someone else skimmed money out of a out of a campaign account to use for the chief of staff's trips to LA and to Washington back and forth. Now,

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his salary, basically.

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padded his salary. Now, the thing about it that stopped me is, all right, I can understand they'll have a long explanation of why it was necessary for him to fly back and forth and I'm not-- I don't believe that explanation, but they can have that

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he

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and...

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it was because it cost so much more. He had to take a salary cut to go with Becerra to Washington, number one, and that meant two households and all that travel and a lower ca-- a lower salary, I gather also. saying it's right, but that's the excuse he gave.

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but here's what's wrong, is that Becerra relied upon this guy so much, Sean, this guy s- relied upon him so much that he, Becerra, approved this extra salary for him.

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That's part of the problem. He's

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What it shows about Becerra that stops me, that worries me, is why does somebody who was the top official the head of Health, Education, and Welfare, attorney general of California, a veteran member of Congress, why does he rely on a political hack a political guy to take care of all the little details of the office?

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Honey, you

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that.

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very well

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He should be on top of things.

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it's not the first, and it won't be the last.

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It won't be the last, but it,

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problem.

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but it is one-- it should be the last because this is-- It's now be- it's now become a campaign issue And I just wanna know why Becerra needed this guy, whose experience has been running campaigns, why he needs his advice to run

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now

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the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

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Bill, this guy has been with Becerra e- every step of the way on the staff for 25 years. He didn't just pick him out of the field from a bunch of campaign consultants.

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I'm just, I'm...

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not be... not be right, but that's the way it was. It

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that's the way it was, and that's the way it is, and it's gonna cause Becerra a lot of, it's gonna c- cause

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is then,

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Becerra a lot of trouble. And again, and I'm not gonna go on and on about this, but elected officials should be on top of things. They should not have some staff person they rely on, for go get my car, do this, do jobs big and small.

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is... getting the car

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shouldn't do that. Now, you say, Sherri, that's al- that's always the way it's been. Well, I don't care, I don't care if that's...

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universally, Bill.

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It's not universal. No, I don't think...

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in the same bucket.

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I don't think so. I don't think so either. But anyway we'll hear more of this, I think, don't you?

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Well, I expect so. Interestingly there was an Emerson College poll for inside, California politics, what a neat name that was just put out today, and you were talking about how close things were. In their poll of the primary election for LA mayor, Karen Bass comes in first, 30% of the vote. Spencer Pratt, 22%, which is like outside the margin of error. Nithya Raman, 19%, which with Pratt is sort of right inside the margin of error. Miller, the entrepreneur who has just come up with a fairly significant ad buy on television, 7%. Ray Huang at 4%, and undecided only 16%. That's a lot lower than it was in Emerson's poll About a month ago. and in fact, the poll found that all three of the front-running candidates, Bass, Pratt, and Raman, showed significant gains from the last month's poll which had Bass at 20%, Pratt at 10, and Raman at nine. What I've gathered from this is I think Raman appears to be imploding.

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Well, her debate appearance showed that, she might not have been ready for that kind of prime time. She was defen-she was defensive. She complained. Sh-she just didn't look like she was on top of things. What's interesting...

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I wanna know, however... That's the only debate that was held, and I wanna know how many people actually watched it.

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We don't know that.

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Of course, not... We have other times for other debates, but it drives me crazy.

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We...

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all of this fighting over canceling the forum which was supposed to be held, I don't know. I don't know whether or not anybody cares that it was canceled. And, the argument against it is, but cutting off the electorate's ability to see the candidates and hear their agendas. I don't know how many people actually watch those debates, let alone what's the real impact of them.

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Well, even though we're flying blind in these races, what's interesting is there are two points here. One is the mayor, Mayor Bass seems to be holding on despite heavy attacks, in the last debate on commercials in the sp- in the stump speeches on, and everything, she seems to be holding on. The other thing is the rise of Pratt. Pratt has moved up to close behind the mayor. It's in sort of a tribute, I guess, to the new newspaper in town,"The Post",

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come on.

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Which has P- Pratt on page one most days, and sometimes two.

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How many

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pretty influential.

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California Post right here? You and Nancy and who else?

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Well, pretty influential people.

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That's it, two of you.

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Anyway, Pratt has moved up. So

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well, but he's still very far behind

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But still far be- far behind. So I would say the most significant aspect of these early weeks, days of the campaign has been Mayor Bass holding on not...

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back, actually.

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Yeah, you're right, coming back.

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a while, she was not as strong as she appears to be today. She's, she sort of scrapped her way back.

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I think that may be the most significant thing that's happening even more significant than the rise of Pratt, and we'll see. If we could switch to another thing you and I were talking about and there's been some comment on it. It's the issue of the young and the old running for office. That was prompted by, really by former President Biden's departure from the race after looking really old in in the last debate and with Nancy Pelosi continuing to be speaker and wielding still considerable power in the House of Representatives.

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I'm just, I just wanna say that the debate over how old is too ho- old to hold office has been around politics forever. But you're right, it really became a glaring debate with Joe Biden, and now Donald Trump, who seems to be showing his age dramatically these days, as well as Nancy Pelosi, who at 86 finally decided it's time to hang it up is going to do that. What I find fascinating is that right now there are 13 members of Congress who are 80 years old or more, and three of them are from California, and all three of them are seeing primary debates. They're being challenged by younger, newer, candidates. Being challenged as they haven't been challenged in a primary for a very long time. I, it's-- I think it's really interesting that we have so many actually members of Congress who are jeepers. Well, they may not be older than you, but they might be older than me. My, my late husband used to say that he'd worry when the Pope was younger than he was, and if he were here, he'd be really worried, not only about that, but about the fact that we have significant number of elders Congress.

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You know what scared me was they-- all these olders were listed, and one of them was Congressman Brad Sherman,

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Who's

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who I covered,

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the younger olders?

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who was he was-- I covered him when he ran for Congress against represe-- against Howard Berman, and it was the famous Berman-Sherman battle, and it was a good one. But I always thought Brad was younger than me. Well, he is younger than me.

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is by much. No offense.

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he's way younger than me. Why was... W- now he shouldn't be listed among the oldsters. And anyway,

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let's

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why...

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that, shall we? What is old? What-- When is old too old to serve in public office?

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There's no limit. I mean, if a person is sharp, in command of his faculties Can make

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isn't,

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his own,

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like.

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Make her or his own way down the hall and to the chamber, and doesn't depend on staff to do everything for him,

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well, that knocks out a whole lot of people who are from old to young, you know that. I mean, and y-you're saying that someone who is, in a wheelchair because of health problems is not... That's old, too old? I don't think so. I think it has to be, if at all that's sort of being a little biased against people with health problems. People who may be another... May not be old, but have a that may be disabled. silly.

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Well, it is, and also through the genius or the, of medical science and more attention to nutrition and less attention to alcoholic beverages

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Horrors.

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People are functioning longer. So age itself, I don't think age itself

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That's a

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would disqualify you, not age itself, but performance should. Now, with with Senator D- Dianne Feinstein, she was definitely affected by her age and various ailments, and had trouble getting out for votes and all through

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now,

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it.

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Mitch McConnell now, still.

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Right.

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This has been going on quite a while him. But...

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people like that, who are having trouble functioning shouldn't be in office. It should be up to the voters, really. It should be up to the voters.

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been the answer, and look what we've gotten every now and then. Ugh. Listen, it's not only age, chronological age that's a part of this debate, but some of the younger candidates who have decided to challenge long-term incumbents and I think there's some evidence of this debate nationally, particularly within the Democratic Party, that it's time to open up the political system, the political party, to a new generation of leaders. And as long as these elders hang on for 35, 40, whatever number of years, blocks any new blood entering. And that's what's making me think a little bit more about the possibility of an age limit. Right now I'm lo- I'm thinking maybe 80 years old regardless, just so that there can be another generation of leadership moving up within the structure of the political parties. I think the fact that both parties, but certainly very visible in the Democratic Party and in the Republican president that we're being governed by basically an older generation, a less diverse generation, that might be the possibility if there were seats open that young people of color can possibly win in that pretty much spells out the problem of politics today, and the fact that the few members of Congress quit voluntarily are either thrown out, or ill, or shown not to be able to cope. It just-- There is a block

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Well, there is a block, but

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blood involved.

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It's self-imposed. I mean,

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By whom?

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Where are the younger candidates? Where is their ambition? Where is their ability to organize to put together a campaign team to,

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Is

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up with...

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question or are you asking

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No, I'm asking where are they?

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They're there.

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Why are we h-

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is a

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are we

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of

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even discussing this question? Because it's a business where you think more and more people would wanna get into it, get into a race, challenge the incumbent, and win or lose, and, like normal politics.

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Normal?

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I mean, this business of of reverence for the older person is a,

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Ain't none here.

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doesn't mean... it's stupid. But the older person should have to defend herself or himself,

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And theoretically, they do.

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in the rigors-

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they

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In the rigors of a campaign. And you can see how the older senators and the older h- Congress people, how they have trouble with this defending themselves and taking the aggressive-- And one of the things, one of the things wrong with the Democratic Party is the absence of young, aggressive winner,

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point.

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candidates.

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exactly my point.

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Well, let them run.

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has been stopped. How? My fa...

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well, I don't know. It's...

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one of the ways,

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I...

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only way you can get into the party into the process, younger, newer, candidates. It,

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With...

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if you're blocked because there is an incumbent there who refuses to leave unless if you are a new candidate, a younger candidate, unless you know that there is an opportunity for you to take that incumbent down. And quite frankly, the opportunity is better than if you wait until the older incumbent dies or resigns because then you have an open seat and, like, 20 people run for the office. You're not gonna get an infusion new perspective, of new blood, and this is... I mean, you can see it, you can see it built in partic- well, in both the Republican and the Democratic Party. Both parties have been aware of this for a good long time.

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the an objection that I have about

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Neither

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An 80-year-old a-age limit, for example or any k- modifying the system, is you don't know what you're gonna get. You don't know whether it's gonna turn out good or bad, and,

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does it today, although

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Well, we...

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studies have indicated that may be a little worse than better.

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We have that before us in this current election this monstrosity called the top two, where the top two finishers in the primaries for governor and other offi-

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For state offices,

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Yeah. Honest

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in

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state offices. Right. The top two win. Now, that was supposed to improve things. It was supposed to in-- give independents more power. It should cut down the... I don't understand why it was cut down the influence of money. It would open up the process to more people. But to me

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the influence of money, but the hope was it would move more moderates into the legislature, into Congress.

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that hasn't happened. That

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

No. Well, it did in the beginning when we first... prop 14, it was enacted in, I believe, what? 2011.

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Yeah, something like that.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

And for a little bit it sort of happened, but then look at today's political environment. There's no way you're gonna find any compromise ready to be made in our electoral system right

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so there was a reform that the reformers were wrong about that. It's made the system worse, I think.

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It may have again, because there is no room right now for compromise. I mean, you can still see in... With regard to the governor's race, although the pre- the argument for both of the Republican candidates Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, is that they are MAGA candidates. They are appealing, particularly Bianco, to the MAGA base, even though theoretically it's this wonderful primary that makes candidates move toward the center. Hadn't done much, I don't think, to accomplish that. Although I will tell you, I-- one of the reasons that I'm-- I am for the primary is that it allows independent voters no party preference voters to participate in the primary process. However, I'm also against it because it's just absolutely minor political parties. So those people who argue,"This is bad because in the top two sometimes we have two candidates from the other party and we don't wanna vote for them," it's also because it cuts out voters who would wanna vote for anybody but one of those political parties.

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What about, what about-

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a hash.

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What about the argument that this is just too confusing. You screw around with the system every few elections, and you change it, and it gets to be so confusing that voters can't understand it. And that also, you could extend that out to a little different subject. It's also true of the of the initiatives and constitutional amendments that are put on the ballot that are extremely complicated. I have a friend Bob Stern who he's a great fan of the initiatives.

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guru.

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He's a

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Hear that, Bob?

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He's a fan of all good government things and a- and when I tell him that, I say,"Bob I'm just not gonna vote on this. It's too confusing. I-- and I don't have time to r-read it all. And it's just written by c-complex-minded lawyers and political hacks, so I'm gonna vote no." So that's the way I feel about

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

We've

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it.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

This has only been in existence 15 years. I mean, us elders can remember the way the old primary worked. I don't see how that could be confusing. The kids, the millennials, and whatever, the first-time voters may sort of shake their heads a little bit about it. I'd say it's just another indication, quite frankly, of this generational gap that we see popping up all over political system. interesting, I think watch that dynamic occur. I mean, we, you and I, and people around our age cohort have some idea of how the old way worked and some idea of how this new two primary, relatively new t- top two primary works. But the younger people haven't experienced the old way, the old primary, where each political party, minor or major, had its own primary, and the winner of each of those on the ballot.

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What was wrong with that?

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

We're cutting off a lot

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I thought it was clear-cut and easy to understand.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Which,

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The old system where each party nominated somebody to run and and then, th- then those two winners would face off in the November election.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

than two winners, though, Bill. If the minor party qualified, its nominee would also be on the ballot.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

that was a good thing when the minor parties qualified. It's not true now. Years ago during a period of progressive or leftist reforms during the whole riotous'60s when the political process seemed like it was coming apart or something, the minor parties performed a very good function. I'm thinking particularly of the Peace and Freedom Party

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And

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which was,

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there's the Green Party,

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

Yes.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

environment a critical

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

That's right. Both of those parties put their issues out there, and they became a part of the debate. And and both parties were able to campaign and people could vote for them. So somebody would say,"Well, I don't like any of the-- I don't like the Democrats. I don't like the Republicans. I'm gonna vote Green." And...

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

there are no write-ins even allowed in the general election under the top two primary system. I mean, I'm really torn because I like voting in the pri- in, in the top two primary in the open primary, if you will, because otherwise I wouldn't... The Democrats did allow independents to vote in their primary election with the-- in California. The Republicans did not. I also understand that it's cutting out an awful lot of people and political parties, minor political parties, but political parties who cannot ever win a primary and cannot be a in a general election. That's not freedom of speech

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

No.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

point view. And let me make just one point about the process itself, because I c- you don't like the process, period, correct?

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

I'm very suspicious of the process. I think the process, well-intentioned as it was when it first hit our consciousness in the early Part of the 19th century was good.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

The early

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

It was conceived of and became part of the Constitution as an effort to take politics out of the hands of corrupt bosses. That was particularly true in Sacramento, where the lobbyists even much more than today, where the lobbyists really ran the place in a rough and crude manner. And this was supposed to,

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

taken

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

this was supposed to... You

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Southern Pacific Railroad, yeah, and the banks. Exactly. It was a pro- progressive reform, Progressive Party reform initiative, recall, and referendum because citizens were locked out of having any kind of influence, any kind of power Sacramento. And so what the initiative the Progressive Party wanted the initiative to do was to give the ordinary voter to influence policy, to influence the lawmakers and break basically the Southern Pacific Railroad and the banks. you're right. What does the initiative process do now? The initiative process has become a way for special interests to get around I mean, you... It's much easier and probably more effective for special interests to buy policy, to put it on the ballot, spend a fortune to get the language that they want in the Constitution than it would be to simply rent a legislator then have to be at the behest of the legislator and see perhaps your language compromised.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

know,

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

It's easier and more efficient for them policy to rent a legislator, and that's where the initiative process

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

we don't know, and we don't know when we're going to vote who's behind these measures. Like-

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Well, if we read the

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

some, of

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

pamphlet, we would

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

Some of the measures that have gone on the ballot in recently are aimed at improving the working conditions of nurses. Their working conditions should be improved. I agree with that. I don't think I should vote on it on Election Day. I think that's a matter that they should,

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Why

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

Because as a voter, I don't wanna- deal with the very details of a worker's shift. Should should they work 10 hours? Should they work eight hours? I don't know. I have no idea, and I have no way of finding out. I mean, I'll never know. What about their days off? All the conditions of work that have been on the ballot, shouldn't be there.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

What about the minimum wage? If the legislature won't do anything about it, if the employers won't do anything about it, if those who are impacted by the minimum wage and need or want a higher minimum wage, shouldn't it go on the ballot then? An attorney. I wish I'd had Bob Stern answer that question. I mean, seriously, I don't know if the

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

That's right. I'm not entirely right. There are some issues that are so big and so transcending that the voters should vote on them. For instance fair housing when minimum wage, There are some things that are really big Oh, well, of course, Proposition 13, the

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Property tax reform.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

thing, right. Well, that, that was a good example of where I think you're right. The property tax was so oppressive, and it w- created so much hard feelings, and everything was going bad. The only way to break that logjam really was to have some grumpy old man, Howard Jarvis, get the signatures and have-- and put it on the ballot, and then the people voted. Well, it turned out that they wanted Proposition 13. So, here I am arguing against myself on that particular point, but that's the mark of a open-minded person, right?

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Oh, yeah.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

Or a weak-minded person.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Or somebody who is just to figure life out. that's part of what goes on with regard to the way California conducts its I-- the only thing I could you to do is read the ballot pamphlet, take a look at the way things were and the way they are now. And I think you're right, whoever is pushing a particular policy and what individuals or groups are opposing that policy, and then vote. And think you gotta do it the same way with candidates. Take it all into consideration, and if they have a record, look at that record and see if it

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

One of the things that we both, agree on is that voters should take a lot of time, should make time to,

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

don't know that they can.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

To look at that.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

the environment today. That's the-- That, that is one of the most frustrating things to me, and I'm among those who I'm not doing the depth of research I should honestly do before I just vote on I want to represent me, what I want be represented. It's, I, it's just sort of indicative about where we are as a and as a government, the political system right now. And I think it also has to do with the fact that average voters are so skeptical and distrustful the system and of the people who inhabit it, that they're hesitant to even get involved.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

I think that's very important is this widespread distrust of governmental institutions and political institutions. Well, Sherry, let's continue this on as we battle through these.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

going to be looking specifically at whether or not this Becerra campaign financing... I guess, I don't know. He's not been identified someone who is be indicted, but it impact his, what seemed to be a meteoric rise in the polls the governor's race? There's an old saying that one thing that, that the Democratic Party knows how to do, they're always capable of snatching out of the jaws of victory. now, perhaps, that will have occurred in this gubernatorial race,

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

Yes.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

not.

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

Right.

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

All right, everybody

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

let's talk about it next week and

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Okay,

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

see you

squadcaster-d4ge_2_05-13-2026_150022

Cheers

host-4ha0_2_05-13-2026_150022

then. Cheers. Bye-bye.