00:00I'm going to tell you the most extraordinary thing about Javier Becerra's run for governor.
00:04Javier Becerra came from nowhere to become the presumptive frontrunner in the race for
00:09governor of California. Why did this happen? Well, basically because Democrats needed a
00:15frontrunner. As the prospect loomed that two Republicans could qualify for the general
00:19election and no Democrats, Democrats were desperate to find at least one candidate who
00:24could finish first or second in the June 2nd jungle primary and have a chance of going through
00:29to the general election. It would not matter if they finished second because once you are a Democrat
00:34in a general election against a Republican, you are almost guaranteed to win. Javier Becerra became
00:39the frontrunner in a very interesting way. Of course, Eric Swalwell, who had been edging toward
00:43that frontrunner status, crashed out amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Where did Becerra come from?
00:50Well, a little-known consulting firm put out a poll that showed him with high favorability ratings,
00:55and then Politico picked up that story and ran with it. Over time, the story got repeated and repeated
01:01and repeated by other media outlets, and suddenly Democrats understood that Becerra could be the
01:07new frontrunner, and it became almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. He now is at 52% likely to prevail,
01:14according to Polymarket. I don't particularly put much stock in prediction markets, but there you have it.
01:19Here's the most extraordinary thing about all this. When the first gubernatorial debate was scheduled
01:25at USC and with the local ABC station, Javier Becerra was left off the stage. He did not have
01:31the polling numbers. He did not have the fundraising numbers to qualify. They used what they called an
01:36objective set of criteria to decide who should be on the debate stage. He then accused them of racism
01:42because the only candidates that qualified at that stage all happened to be white. Becerra is going
01:48to make his story down the stretch a story about how he triumphed over this initial attempt to exclude
01:56him, where he was so far behind he could not compete with fundraising, he couldn't compete in the polling,
02:00and became the frontrunner after fighting hard and persevering. That's going to be part of his story,
02:06and is actually rather extraordinary to come from so far behind to the poll position in the race for
02:13governor.
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