A former California governor has said he is against the idea of lower-polling Democratic candidates dropping out of this year’s gubernatorial race — even if that leads to the party being locked out of the election.
Gray Davis, a Democrat who led California from 1999 to 2003, said candidates need to ignore the state Democratic party‘s pressure to quit from the race.
The party wants higher-polling candidates to consolidate more Democratic votes in the June primary.
“Tons and tons of people asked me to drop out,” he told Inside California Politics on Saturday. “That obviously was fuel for the fire. I worked smarter, I worked harder, we got a lot of breaks and I ended up winning pretty handsomely.”
Davis’ campaign for governor in 1998 was the last time a gubernatorial contest in California was this wide open.
While two heavy-weight candidates were duking it out against each other, Davis — an underdog that had been polling at the bottom — managed to sneak past them into a landslide victory.
Now, the numerous low-polling candidates in a crowded Democratic field are in a similar situation.
While three Democrats are hovering near the top, the rest of the pack include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state controller Betty Yee, state Superintendent of of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Secretary of Health Xavier Becerra, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
So many contenders are splitting the Democratic vote that a number of polls have predicted the field’s two Republican candidates, Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, may get the top two highest number of votes in June.
If so, under California’s structure, that means only Hilton and Bianco will appear on the November ballot. “They have a valid reason to be freaked out,” top polling expert Paul Mitchell said of the Democrats.
With this possibility, Davis still said candidates need to trust their own gut on what to do.
“It’s fine for someone else to tell you you should get out, but that’s not their business,” Davis told the Los Angeles Times.
“You’re the candidate, and if you think for whatever reason you want to stay in the race, you should stay in the race.”
By staying in the race, a candidate would be able to take advantage of potential developments and opportunities, he added. Anything can happen like in 1998.
If people want to narrow the field, they should do it “organically” such as consolidating donors, Davis said.
The former governor hasn’t endorsed any candidate this year, but he said he’s friends with two low-polling contenders – Yee and Villaraigosa. They are polling at 1% and 4% respectively, according to the most recent nonpartisan poll.
