Telepeer

Politicians get into position for 2026 California elections

May 1, 2023

This past week, Eleni Kounalakis announced she was running to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2026.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “Who?”

Eleni Kounalakis is the lieutenant governor of the state of California. She’s in her second term, actually, having just been re-elected last year.

As of right now, her campaign website (eleniforca.com) is pretty sparse, with a consultant-crafted, buzzword-filled biography of her the only substantive content on the page. You know, stuff like, “She has been a proud leader in California’s fight against climate change and has showcased California’s progress and leadership on a global level.”

It’s both heroic-ish and super vague, because lieutenant governors don’t actually have much power or influence. Kounalakis, in other words, doesn’t have much to tout because, well, there’s not much for her to do as lieutenant governor.

Fun Fact: “In 2019, Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis ‘behested’ $300,000 from labor unions to renovate her government office with new furniture and artwork.”

It’s like someone working as a grocery store cashier exaggerating on their resume that they have deep experience “directly interfacing with their organization’s clients, computing complex monetary transactions and ensuring the successful, efficient delivery of goods and services.”

That’s going to be Kounalakis’ whole campaign, basically, when talking about her governing record. Other than serving on some government boards back in the day, she has otherwise previously served as U.S. ambassador to Hungary under President Barack Obama. But ambassadorships, especially to a small country like Hungary, basically consists of hanging out and hosting dinner parties. So her political record is basically free of contentious, meaningful decision-making.

To say something less critical, though, I have interviewed Kounalakis a couple of times over the years and I’ve found her to be actually smart, which I can’t say for most electeds in California.

Anyway, what made Kounalakis’ announcement interesting was that former California Controller Betty Yee immediately jumped out and said she, too, would be running for governor.

Since I’m now a professional campaign website analyst, Yee’s website (bettyyee.com) is pretty out-of-date, with a banner declaring her intention to run for vice chair of the California Democratic Party, from two years ago.

Betty Yee has been around in government for a while, but I can’t think of any reason why anyone would vote for her besides her family.

My strongest memory of her came toward the end of her time as controller, when transparency group Open the Books sued Yee to provide them with line-by-line spending by California’s government agencies so the public could see for themselves how their money was spent. She refused, stonewalled and fought the request in court, even though all other states made such data available.

Opinion |

Housing First has failed. The homeless crisis in California demands a swift, effective response.

Opinion |

California’s homelessness crisis is a symptom of its housing crisis, that’s why Housing First makes sense

Opinion |

Lou Correa: Title 42 is rightfully set to end. But are we prepared?

Opinion |

Judge Jim Gray: If we’re serious about reducing harms of fentanyl, we must end drug prohibition

Opinion |

By punishing profit, California’s anti-gouging law will boost gas prices

On top of that, under her watch, California was late in submitting state government’s comprehensive annual financial reports. Is that the sort of leadership we need in the governor’s office? Nope.

No to Betty Yee; her record is garbage.

Meanwhile, state Treasurer Fiona Ma is planning to run for lieutenant governor. Ma is best known for championing the California high-speed rail project back when she was in the California Legislature long ago.

It would be one thing if the project Ma championed was actually up and running, as it should have been. But, well, you know. The high-speed rail project is still many years and an extra $100 billion away compared to when it was first proposed.

Ma couldn’t do much damage to California as lieutenant governor, but she’s done enough.

Sal Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]

Orange County Register

News Details

Politicians get into position for 2026 California elections

Related Articles

News

CONTACT INFO

QUICK LINKS

SERVICES

CURRENT NEWS