With just over a month left until California’s June primary election, we’re starting to see races take shape, frontrunners emerge, plenty of ads floating around, and ballot measures breaking the signature threshold needed to appear on the June ballot.
But with all of these races, initiatives, ads and everything else, there’s a lot of information to process. So what’s most important to be watching for in the next month leading up to the primary?
For starters, there’s some intrigue coming out of the governor’s race, where a recent PPIC poll has GOP dark horse John Cox in second behind frontrunner Gavin Newsom. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in third. There’s also a number of Congressional district races to watch right here in Southern California that could potentially play a role in flipping the balance of power in the House of Representatives from Republicans to Democrats. The GOP, meanwhile is preparing for its statewide political convention in San Diego this weekend, where we may find out who the state Republican Party decides to endorse in the race for governor.
We’ll talk with California political reporters who have been following the major headlines and races you need to know about before you head to the polls next month.
Guests:
Mary Plummer, KPCC senior politics reporter and Human Voter Guide; she tweets
Marisa Lagos, KQED politics reporter and co-host of KQED’s Political Breakdown podcast; she tweets
Melanie Mason, LA Times state government and politics reporter and co-host of California Politics Podcast; she tweets
Ready for Election Day? Get up to speed on what you need to know with KPCC’s Voter Game Plan. Read up on the candidates and ballot measures, find out about registration deadlines and ask us your questions.