President Trump was a big factor in California's redistricting war. What about the governor's race?

"When it came down to it, California's Proposition 50 redistricting was chalked up to a pre-midterm elections referendum on President Donald Trump and his policies. But that election is over now. Attention has swung to another one that has been percolating in the background: the race for California's next governor. RELATED: What went wrong for California Republicans in the Proposition 50 fight? That Proposition 50 playbook - for Democrats, it was invoking Trump; for Republicans, it was avoiding the president - could serve as a roadmap for the bevy of candidates hoping to break out in what's been, thus far, a fairly lackluster gubernatorial campaign."

""There's a very significant difference between the two types of campaigns: A ballot initiative is an up-or-down vote, but a candidate election, particularly during a primary campaign, is a multiple-choice decision," said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at USC and UC Berkeley. Take the crowded field of Democratic candidates, where the race to replace a term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom as California's chief executive is particularly crowded. Just in the past week, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and Rep. Eric Swalwell launched bids, the latter directly invoking the president in his announcement. "The next governor of California has two jobs. One, keep the worst president in our history out of our homes, out of our streets and out of our lives," said Swalwell, who also referenced his roles as a House manager in Trump's 2021 impeachment trial in the spot."

Proposition 50 redistricting was broadly framed as a pre-midterm referendum on President Donald Trump and his policies. With that vote concluded, political attention has shifted to the upcoming California gubernatorial contest. The Proposition 50 playbook — Democrats invoking Trump and Republicans avoiding him — could inform gubernatorial strategies, but experts caution that simple embrace or opposition of the president will not suffice. Ballot initiatives offer binary choices, while candidate primaries present multiple options requiring distinct messaging. The Democratic field is crowded, including recent entries by Tom Steyer and Rep. Eric Swalwell, and several contenders have criticized the Trump administration in media appearances.

Read at The Mercury News