Wednesday, June 6, 2018

California Primary Results: Gavin Newsom, John Cox to Face-Off in November Gubernatorial Election

Well, the results are in, and it's almost a near certainty that far-left loon Gavin Newsom will be the state's next governor.

I didn't vote for John Cox, but I'm heartily throwing my support behind, although I'm not confident it'll do any good. But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took roughly 60 percent of the vote in the last two presidential elections, and I'd be surprised if Newsom doesn't come close to matching that statewide.

In any case, the full primary election results are at the Los Angeles Times, "Results from the California primary." (And at Memeorandum.)

Also, "It's Newsom vs. Cox in November as Villaraigosa tumbles in governor's race":
Gavin Newsom, the favorite of the California Democratic Party's core liberal base, coasted to a first-place finish in Tuesday's primary election for governor and faces a November showdown with John Cox, a multimillionaire Republican hitched to the far-right policies of President Trump.

The results mark a stunning defeat for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, representing the fall of a politician who embodied the growing power of the Latino electorate when he was elected mayor in 2005. Villaraigosa conceded late in the evening, urging those who voted for him to give their support to his opponent.

“I’m asking you to get behind Gavin Newsom,” said Villaraigosa, surrounded by his family. “I’m asking you to stand up and pressure every one of us — Democrat and Republican alike — pressure every one of us to stand up for you, to fight for you, not just for ourselves, but for all of us for an America and a California where every one of us are growing together.”

Newsom, 50, a former San Francisco mayor who is currently serving his second term as California's lieutenant governor, will face Cox, 62, an Illinois transplant and real estate investor who ran for the U.S. House and Senate twice in Illinois, failing to reach the primary in all three. In 2008, Cox also launched a campaign for president before dropping out when he failed to gain any traction.

At Newsom’s election night party in San Francisco, the Democrat vowed to fight for universal healthcare and tackle the state's housing affordability crisis, while promising to offer policy solutions instead of angry rhetoric.

"In politics today, there’s too much anger,” Newsom told his supporters. “Instead, we offered answers. Resistance with results.”

Cox has poured nearly $5 million into his bid for governor, but his political fortunes grew considerably when Trump fired off a tweet endorsing him in the final weeks of the campaign.

After a five-year hiatus from political office, Villaraigosa hoped to recapture the magic that led to his two terms as mayor of Los Angeles, but failed to stitch together support from enough Latinos, moderates and lower-income Californians to finish in the top two.

Cox declared a second-place victory Tuesday night and wasted no time blasting Newsom and the Democratic Party for California leading the nation in poverty, and government regulations that he said have made homes unaffordable, leading to an explosion of homelessness. In a preview of his general election campaign, Cox pinned the unpopular new gas-tax increase and the so-called sanctuary state policy squarely on Newsom.

“Mr. Newsom, you've had eight years, and your party has made a colossal mess of this once golden state,” Cox told supporters at an election night party held at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego.

Cox said California is in desperate need of a leader with business sense.

"Businesspeople have been elected to office as governor all across this nation to clean up the messes that the politicians have made," Cox said.

Newsom also had a few words for Cox on Tuesday night, yoking the Republican to a president who remains extremely unpopular in California.

“California’s vision and America’s values are one and the same,” Newsom said. “But our values, as you know, are under assault. We’re engaged in an epic battle, and it looks like voters will have a real choice between a governor who will stand up to Donald Trump and a foot solider in his war on California.”

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