Running statewide

Tim Herdt at the Ventura County Star has a long story on running statewide. Still, some choose to run for these down-ticket offices, to take on a lonely campaign, to seek to make themselves known to a vast and largely apathetic electorate. They pack their bags for a humbling journey of frequent rejection that takes them to a numbing repetition of receptions, luncheons, cocktail parties and interviews. They travel without entourage to Humboldt, Red Bluff, Bakersfield, Palm Desert — anywhere they can line up even a room full of people willing to lend an ear or write a check. They seek jobs that few voters know exist, and still fewer have a notion what they do: controller, treasurer, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, insurance commissioner, attorney general, lieutenant governor. These are the minor leagues of California politics, where many prospects toil and from which sometimes a star emerges. These are the offices that can launch the careers of governors and U.S. senators. Pat Brown and George Deukmejian were first attorneys general. Jerry Brown, Pat's son, was secretary of state. Gray Davis was both controller and lieutenant governor. Alan Cranston was controller. It is a curious thing, running statewide. I mean, how does an average voter decide between John Chiang and Joe Dunn (the two Democrats running for controller), or Abel Maldonado and Tony Strickland (the two Republicans). Few California voters will know any of the candidates, let alone know them well enough to make a truly informed decision. Assemblyman Keith Richman, running for treasurer, is quoted later in the story saying that his campaign polled 15 percent name recognition in the state. Even that seems hard to believe. When the Field Poll queried name ID a few months back, almost every candidate (besides the Jerry Browns and Cruz Bustamantes of the world who have run for/been governor) registered somewhere in the "teens". But I am pretty sure a portion of those who "know" the candidates say that because it seems like the right, civically responsible thing to say. I mean, imagine taking a survey, being asked about 20 folks--who are running for office statewide--that you have never heard of. Some names, magically, start to sound familiar. In any case, Herdt's piece is worth a read.