Georgiana Vines

Special to USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee

I’m returning to Knoxville after spending the summer in San Francisco and environs and friends have asked if I planned to write a column on California vs. Tennessee politics. So here goes.

First of all, California is a very blue state and will stay that way after the Nov. 6 general election. The governor and two U.S. Senators are all Democrats in the Golden State while they’re Republican in the Volunteer State. Much conjecture exists about the outcome of Tennessee’s statewide races in November.

San Francisco is the home of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader who’s in a safe Democratic district. But she’s also the target of Republicans in some close races this election cycle where ads are placed that say the Democratic House candidate is just a vote for Pelosi to become House speaker again. The ads are credited with working for Republicans in some special elections outside California.

Like Tennessee, the governor’s position and one U.S. Senate seat are up in California. The governor, Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is term-limited just like Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor who is lieutenant governor and a Democrat, is expected to beat Republican John H. Cox, a businessman and taxpayer advocate.

Among the sources on that race is University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, who has established an online newsletter and website on political analysis and electoral projections called the Crystal Ball. The Crystal Ball says the California governor’s race is a safe Democratic one while it calls the governor’s race in Tennessee between Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean as likely Republican.

The U.S. Senate race in California has been interesting to follow the past few months. Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who with the other California Democratic senator, Kamala Harris, led opposition last week to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the Judiciary Committee hearings.

Feinstein did not receive the endorsement of the California Democratic Party at a June convention although she did win the Democratic nomination in the August primary. However, under a quirky feature of California’s election – at least for a Tennessean – that’s called a top-two primary system, Feinstein’s opponent is Kevin de Leon, a fellow Democrat, who is Speaker pro tem of the state Senate. That’s because in the California primary, voters can cross party lines and vote for any candidate, with the two highest vote-getters, regardless of party, moving on to the general election.

De Leon won the state Democratic Party’s endorsement, viewed as showing the influence of the liberal, anti-Trump movement. Sabato and some Democratic leaders in California see Feinstein winning easily.

The Sabato Crystal Ball says the race to succeed for Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seat between Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen leans Republican. An anaylsis on the Crystal Ball after Labor Day said the state is viewed as a “heavy lift for Democrats just because the state has trended so clearly Republican in recent years; if this was a more 50-50 state, we’d probably call this race a Toss-up.”

In the U.S. House, California has 53 congressmen compared to Tennessee’s nine. The California delegation is overwhelmingly Democratic; Tennessee’s is Republican.

The California delegation includes U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from the San Diego area, who with his wife was indicted in August on charges of spending lavishly at luxury resorts and fine dining with political contributions. The San Diego Union Tribune also reported the 47-page document says the five-term congressman had “personal relationships” with five unnamed individuals. Hunter’s lawyer argued prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges for conduct that falls into a gray area of civil election law.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball says Hunter’s district leans Republican despite Democrats coming together in support of challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar.

The California ballot also lists seven other at-large offices besides governor, from lieutenant governor to superintendent of public instruction, the latter a nonpartisan race. Tennessee doesn’t have these offices elected by voters.

Californians also can choose to vote by mail-in ballots without a reason, such as age or travel as required in Tennessee. In the primary, 11.8 million ballots were sent to California voters. On Election Day, fewer than 3 million had been returned to a registrar’s office and under the law, the ballots would still be counted if they arrived up to three days after the election.

The result was some California races were too close to call Election Night. That left a lot of uncertainty – a nightmare for election officials and anxiety for candidates. At least that didn’t happen in Tennessee the last election go-round.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.