Elias: Bonta may soon become front-runner for California governor

For many months, California Attorney General Rob Bonta laid low in the 2026 run for California governor.

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He did this by insisting he would run for re-election if Kamala Harris opted to make the run for governor, which was the general expectation for her until July 30, when she stunned the political world by opting out of the campaign. Bonta has no need for to lay low any longer, unless he sincerely doesn’t want the job. In a wide but weak field, Bonta stands out as likely the strongest candidate.

“Kamala Harris would be a great governor,” Bonta said of a prospective Harris run early on. … “I would support her if she ran, I’ve always supported her in everything she’s done. She would be field‑clearing.”

Instead, Harris has now cleared the field for what proves to be the most openly competitive run for California governor in generations. It’s hard to remember a more open race in the modern era, when there always seems to have been an obvious successor waiting in the wings whenever a gubernatorial campaign came up.

There is no such successor this time, though, no Gavin Newsom waiting for Jerry Brown to get out of the way, no Brown waiting for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s departure and no Schwarzenegger waiting to oust Gray Davis in a recall election, to name just a few recent runs for governor.

Remembering the achievements of the current crop of gubernatorial candidates is hard. The first newly named frontrunner, Orange County’s former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, was a tough questioner in Congress, but try to name a singular achievement.

Real estate developer Rick Caruso, who lost a 2022 run for mayor of Los Angeles, seems more focused on criticizing the current mayor than running for governor. The top achievement of former state Senate President Toni Atkins, of San Diego, seems to have been becoming the first lesbian occupant of that office.

There’s also former state controller Betty Yee, who lacks a singular achievement too. Then there’s former Los Angeles Mayor and state Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, whose achievements seem lost in the winds of time, because he’s been out of office raking in private payments for services so long.

Not to be forgotten is Xavier Becerra, once the elected attorney general of California and later a Joe Biden cabinet officer. He was President Trump’s prime legal antagonist during Trump’s first term, filing more than 100 lawsuits and greatly impeding the Trump agenda.

Also there was Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who has the usual nonmemorable achievements of any recent lieutenant governor. Kounalakis, however, announced Aug. 8 that she was dropping out of the governor’s race to run instead for state treasurer.

Among the Republicans, there is Steve Hilton, who is best known as a Fox News host, accompanied by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, best known for his resistance to COVID-19 measures.

That leaves Rob Bonta, the appointed and then elected attorney general who has been the point man in California’s efforts to resist some of the most egregious edicts of President Trump. Bonta, with nearly 40 lawsuits filed so far against Trump measures, is ahead of Becerra’s pace, and his aggressive demeanor in opposing Trump appears to be what California voters want.

That, at least, is what we can glean from the behavior of current Gov. Newsom, who puts on the most aggressive front he can in opposing Trump, presumably because that’s what he believes will best feed the preferences of his base. His latest move is to attempt a gerrymandering effort aimed to parry — at least — an effort by Texas Republicans to “steal” five currently Democratic Texas seats in Congress. Newsom announced Aug. 14 that the state will hold a November special election to approve redrawn districts meant to give Democrats five more U.S. House seats.

Bonta has not yet said much about running for governor, because he seemed to deeply believe Harris would do that job. Since she now says she won’t, though, look for Bonta to take on a very active campaign role, just as he has lately been Trump’s leading legal antagonist.

Bonta’s fought Trump over the federal demands for welfare recipients’ IDs, and he’s fought firings at various federal departments. He’s fought against new voting instructions and for offshore wind energy. It’s hard to find an area where he has not stood against Trump, and if that kind of behavior is really what Californians want, expect him to become the front-runner very soon.

Email Thomas Elias at [email protected], and read more of his columns online at californiafocus.net.