00:00It looks likely that Javier Becerra will be the next governor of California.
00:03What does that mean for California politics?
00:06On the one hand, Javier Becerra is really a status quo politician.
00:10He is not running to do anything different from what Gavin Newsom did.
00:15The only difference is really he wants to go back to some of the more radical policies
00:19that Newsom tried and then backed away from, most notably his policy of Medicare for all.
00:24Newsom tried to achieve that by adding illegal immigrants to Medi-Cal
00:28and then had to stop adding them because the system nearly went under.
00:31It just cost too much money.
00:33Becerra also says he wants to try to save California's high-speed rail project
00:37and he wants to do various other things that Democrats have been doing for a very long time.
00:41So there isn't going to be much change there.
00:43One change you might see is that because Becerra is perceived as a weaker candidate,
00:49that is, he's a weaker administrator, he doesn't have the same charisma as Gavin Newsom
00:54or even Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown,
00:56Becerra is going to be seen as a bit of a pushover by the California State Legislature.
01:01Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom both set themselves up as the adults in the room
01:04so that when the legislature would pass crazy things and big spending bills,
01:08they would veto and keep the legislature in check.
01:11Becerra is going to have a harder time doing that because the legislature senses a kind of weakness.
01:15So he's going to have to establish his authority
01:18and we might see some clashes that we haven't seen before
01:22between the governor and the state legislature in Sacramento.
01:25One thing that is worth mentioning,
01:28Javier Becerra is going to be the first Latino governor of California
01:31and that is actually significant given the long and complex history of this state.
01:37It hasn't really been an issue in this campaign, which in many ways is to his credit.
01:42He hasn't always played into it, although sometimes he has,
01:45but it is a milestone for one of the most important constituencies in this state
01:50to have someone who shares something of their background.
01:54It might be something superficial in some ways,
01:57but to many people in California, it will mean quite a lot.
02:00Other than that, you'll have to look at the other down ticket races
02:02to really see changes in California.
02:04We are heading back into a business as usual environment
02:10and the problem is that Becerra is going to face structural deficits
02:13and other challenges to the state over the next few years.
02:16How he deals with those and whether he can deal with those
02:18with a more aggressive state legislature remains an open question.
