For those of you who are not, the only current democratic candidate for Governor is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who has been campaigning now for over a year. However, it's widely understood by everyone in the political and media world that current California Attorney General Jerry Brown will also be putting his name into the running sometime between now and the primaries. And although he has not yet declared his candidacy, Brown has been ahead of Newsom in every major poll and fundraising count to date.
Today's news is that Good ol' Bill Clinton decided to endorse Newsom...let the media speculation of his motives ensue.
This Wall Street Journal Blog does a pretty good job of laying out the most likely possibilities of why the ex-leader of the free country has decided to get involved in a state-level gubernatorial campaign in the early primary season. The San Francisco Chronicle is just one of many who seem to think that Clinton's early endorsement has little to do with Newsom and everything to do with Brown. After a heated 1992 presidential primary race in which Brown took some personal stabs at Clinton's wife, many media sources are thinking the endorsement is a result of some "residual bad blood"...or maybe Clinton really is just trying to "return a favor" after Newsom endorsed Hillary in the Presidential Primary.
In any case...I doubt Newsom's campaign cares. Bring on the Bill!
Just wondering what you mean by you doubt Newsom's campaign cares. Do you mean they don't care what the reason for Clinton's support is, or they don't care about his endorsement? Anyway - I hope you continue to write about state-level politics, because you're right - I haven't been paying too much attention to the California gubernatorial campaigns yet, so this was a refreshing read.
ReplyDeleteI guess that statement was pretty ambiguous...I meant that whatever Clinton's motivation for endorsing Newsom might have been, Newsom's campaign is more than happy to have him on board. Like I said, for an ex-president to get involved in a state wide election this early on is very rare, especially because Clinton doesn't really have any particular ties to California or Newsom. In fact, during his presidency Clinton was openly against same sex marriage and signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. Although he has since then publicly changed his stance on the issue, it's quite interesting that he would choose to back Newsom, probably the most vehement political advocate for gay rights in the country. But with Jerry Brown's poll results looking rather promising at this point, Newsom's team i'm sure is willing to let bygones be bygones...they can use all the help they can get!
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