Thoughts on the California Primary Election

Too tired to say much, but before the week passes I'll just observe a few things:

1) Although I voted for Westly, I am perfectly happy to see Angelides win. I'm told he gives a helluva barnburner on the stump and as the more progressive choice if he can pull it off against Schwarzenegger, that'll be magnificent. Trouble is Ah-nold has done a good job repositioning himself since last year. Insider consensus has it that the only choice for Angelides is for him to try to paint a giant W on our superhero Guvna's chest--tough to do unless it is just, as one pundit put it, a democratic year in a democratic state.

2) It was surprising, but gratifying, that Debra Bowen won the democratic primary for Secretary of State by a huge margin--she would be a wonderful SS. Now she needs to run against Republican Bruce McPherson who is also generally perceived to be even-handed and honest prior to being appointed to Secretary of State. There are rumblings of dark dealings by McPherson; Debra will probably need to go negative on Bruce to win.

3) For the few of my readers who care, it looks like the chamber of commerce picked up business Democrats in 3 or 4 state Senate primaries and lost to progressives in 3 or 4 Assembly primaries. Assuming most of the seats don't change parties in the general, the Assembly and the Senate are somewhat equalized with a split between more progressive and more business-oriented democrats in power.