Democrat Jerry Brown is doing the bare minimum in his bid for a record fourth term, and Republican Neel Kashkari is doing as much as his campaign bank account will allow.
Here’s how Neel Kashkari is campaigning for governor:
In a boxing gym in Sacramento, Kashkari works up a sweat practicing his punches while surrounded by kids working on their own skills.
Kashkari says there’s a good reason he’s spending precious campaign time in a room full of people too young to vote. “Because I’m focused on education. I’m focused on fighting on behalf of the kids of California. The kids that Jerry Brown has turned his back on.”
Brown, speaking at a Stanford conference on water last week: “Well, water. Big topic. Hard to talk about. Complicated….”
In his TV ads, Kashkari takes hard shots at the governor. “Jerry Brown betrayed our kids to protect his donors. When I’m governor, I’ll fight for kids, not against them,” he said.
Brown’s ads aren’t even about his re-election campaign. “Prop. 1 saves water to prepare us for drought. Prop. 2 sets aside money to prepare us for economic storms. Vote 'yes' on 1 and 2.”
Kashkari said his methods are working. “There’s no question that Gov. Brown has a massive resource advantage relative to my campaign. So when I slept for a week homeless, I was trying to showcase that when Jerry Brown says we’re back, what about the 24 percent of people living in poverty today?”
Brown didn’t have any campaign events until this week. Instead, he’s been popping up every once in a while to give a policy speech, like at Stanford.
He’ll throw out a quick line about running for re-election —again. “This is not just for a one-term governor, this is really the work of a four-term governor.”
Brown never mentions Kashkari. Instead, there’s the occasional history lesson to promote this year's Proposition 1, the water bond, and Proposition 2, the rainy day fund: “The California Water Project, which was Proposition 1 on the 1960 ballot, won by a very tiny margin. …
"Proposition 1 passed then, and I’m confident that Proposition 1 will pass again this November. We have a second Proposition 1. It’s doing a little better than the first Proposition 1,” Brown said.
Political analyst Leo McElroy said as he looks at the two campaigns for governor this way: “Well, it’s the difference between something and nothing." He said Kashkari is in a “terrible situation.”
"Running in a race where you are not even endorsed by some of your party’s nominees, and where the polls say that you are a sure loser. That’s enough to discourage almost anybody. Neel Kashkari is running as if he’s not discouraged,” McElroy said.
California hasn’t seen a re-election campaign like Brown’s since 1946, McElroy said. That’s when Gov. Earl Warren used an antiquated system called “cross-filing” to win both the Republican and Democratic nominations.
“He is in that wonderful position that some elected officials find themselves in — believing he’s not challenged and he can use his efforts to try to bolster other candidates or other issues — in this case, primarily ballot measures,” McElroy said.
Kashkari isn’t backing down. He just gave his campaign an extra million dollars and launched a new TV ad and website attacking Brown.
As for the governor, he holds a 16-point lead in the latest poll. “This is not a guy who loves campaigning — and so this time, he’s got the ultimate excuse of not having to,” McElroy said.
