A few weeks before the June 5th primary, my California compatriot Katy Grimes reported that the George Soros-funded California Justice and Public Safety PAC spent millions in the district attorney’s races in Sacramento, Alameda County, and San Diego.
Now that the votes have been counted, we have another data point showing the #BlueWave has petered out. It is transparently clear that the voters did not want what this particular New York billionaire was selling.
In Sacramento County, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert defeated Noah Phillips by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, getting 65 percent of the vote. Phillips led an insurgent campaign, attacking Schubert for failing to prosecute a police officer who shot a civilian.He reportedly received around $400,000 from Soros and admitted Soros’ team scripted and paid for a TV ad during the campaign, the Los Angeles Times reported. His fundraising efforts received help from Cari Tuna, wife of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who contributed more than $650,000 to a political action committee led by Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King…..Geneviéve Jones-Wright, the Soros-favored candidate in San Diego County, also suffered a major defeat Tuesday. She got only 36 percent of the vote while her opponent, District Attorney Summer Stephan, received more than 60 percent.Soros spent more than $1.5 million in the race, funneling the money to a political action committee that propped up Jones-Wright’s candidacy as she pledged to form a police-misconduct unit and supported progressive reform of the criminal justice system.Stephan fought back against the influence of outside money in the race, declaring Soros’ backing a public safety threat. Jones-Wright, meanwhile, insisted the money merely gave a voice to minorities and poor people.In Alameda County, in the San Francisco Bay Area, District Attorney Nancy O’Malley fended off a challenge from Pamela Price, reportedly receiving more than 60 percent of the vote.
Reviewing the outcome, it looks like Soros’ election experts assumed that California’s deep blue status meant that social justice activism would be the winning ticket in these races.
The results suggest the campaigns failed to energize like-minded voters to turn out against entrenched incumbents backed by police unions in a midterm primary election, in which conservatives historically are more likely to vote. And they appeared to underestimate the deeply rooted support that law enforcement enjoys in a state as politically blue as California.The network’s past victories in Chicago and other parts of the country often relied on tapping voter anger over police shootings of African Americans or other hot-button issues. In Sacramento, the strategy didn’t work for a Soros-backed candidate who attempted to ride a wave of public outrage over the recent killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man shot by officers searching for a burglary suspect.“People were angry enough, but it did not last to the polls,” said the Rev. Shane Harris, founder of the National Action Network’s San Diego chapter, who said he was speaking on his own behalf and not for the organization.
These resounding defeats are additional signals thats the only #BlueWave that Democrats will be seeing this year are those goodbye from normally reliable constituents. In fact, California’s June 5th results are so bad that the Los Angeles Times seems worried.
Final numbers on voter participation won’t be in for a while, but turnout seems unexceptional. With more than 97% of the precincts reporting, less than 21% of registered voters had cast ballots. That’s in line with the anemic turnout in the 2014 primary, and far, far below the five previous midterm election primaries….But the real MAGA effect on the primary seemed to be on the GOP side, where the Trump endorsement of John Cox pushed the Republican businessman and frequent failed candidate into the gubernatorial top two.Cox would appear to have as much chance of beating Democrat Gavin Newsom in the general election as the Cleveland Cavaliers do of winning the NBA finals, but that’s not really the point. Merely having a Republican at the top of the ballot will help bring out GOP voters, or so the theory holds. Will Democrats turn out as well, or will November bring another drive-by blue wave?
I must admit, this is the most schadenfreu-delicious news I have covered in some time.
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