As impeachment talk heats up in Washington, the four Democrats running to be California’s next governor are divided on whether Congress should launch an effort to impeach President Donald Trump.

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Trump impeachment investigation backed by city of Alameda Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Delaine Eastin, the former state superintendent of public instruction, said in response to inquiries from the Bay Area News Group that they believed Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.

But Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, and state Treasurer John Chiang are sounding more cautious notes, saying they need additional evidence first.

The furor over “the I-word” grew this week as Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, circulated a draft resolution impeaching Trump for obstruction of justice among his House colleagues on Monday. Sherman argues that Trump deserves to be impeached for interfering in the FBI investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election.

He faces long odds: Removing a president through impeachment requires a majority vote in the House of Representatives and a two-thirds vote in the Senate, both of which are controlled by Republicans. And so far only one other member of Congress, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, has publicly supported the effort to write articles of impeachment now.

Read: Yes, the Bay Area is a hotbed of activism against President Trump, but none of the region’s members of Congress are ready to support impeachment efforts.

But the proposal is finding support on the campaign trail. Newsom, who has led in polls for the 2018 governor’s race, backs the idea of starting impeachment proceedings, his campaign says.

“He does believe it is time to pursue impeachment,” said spokesman Dan Newman. “He thinks that while impeachment should never be casually invoked as a political tactic, President Trump’s actions are so egregious and his rhetoric is so deceitful that we should begin the process to obtain the facts and the truth.”

Eastin also endorsed impeachment.

“I absolutely support members of Congress drawing up Articles of Impeachment against President Trump,” she said in an email, citing what she said were Trump’s conflicts of interest, his travel ban, his campaign’s collusion with Russia, and his firing of FBI Director James Comey. “We cannot allow one petty man to destroy the democracy that so many have given their lives to defend.”

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who leads in early polls in the 2018 governor's race, says he believes Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Delaine Eastin, the former state superintendent of public instruction and a candidate for governor, supports impeachment efforts. (File photo/Ron Burda)

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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa isn't ready to back impeachment efforts.



State Treasurer John Chiang says he needs to see additional evidence before considering throwing his support behind an impeachment effort. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Villaraigosa’s campaign has toed a thin line. “If the facts are as reported” about Trump pressuring Comey on the Russia investigation and then firing him, “the president should and will be impeached if he doesn’t resign first,” he told the Sacramento Bee last month.

“But the Mayor also believes we must allow the Special Prosecutor (Robert Mueller) to do his job and finish his investigation, as well as let the Senate Judiciary Committee continue to gather evidence,” spokesman Eric Jaye said in an email. “He wants to see findings of fact from current investigations first.”

Chiang is also taking a wait-and-see approach. “Like many Americans, he’s very concerned about what’s going on,” said spokeswoman Kate Chapek. “He’s very much about making sure we go through the due process and really making sure we have the evidence that President Trump did break the law” before calling for impeachment.

Meanwhile, Tom Steyer, a Democratic donor and environmental activist, who’s considering a run for governor, also believes Congress should immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, he said in an interview with the Sacramento Bee this past weekend.

Unsurprisingly, businessman John Cox, the first declared Republican candidate in the race, is taking a different tone. “This is the latest political theater from the Gavin Newsom wing of the Democratic Party,” said Tim Rosales, a Cox spokesman. Cox has declined to say whether he voted for Trump in November.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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Impeachment has already come up as an issue in Democratic primaries for 2017 gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, with the more liberal candidates supporting impeachment and more moderate ones counseling patience.

It’s likely to be a big campaign issue between California Democrats next year, said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University.

“This is going to place an incredible pressure on the fissures in the Democratic Party,” McCuan said.

The state party is also divided over a contentious race for party chair last month, in which a Bernie Sanders-backing candidate, Kimberly Ellis of Richmond, is alleging irregularities in the vote she lost to longtime party activist Eric Bauman.

Some observers believe the June primary will result in a general election race between two Democrats, and both Villaraigosa and Chiang have tried to subtly position themselves to front-runner Newsom’s right so far. If November does become a Democrat-Democrat faceoff, more tempered stances on Trump could help them win Republican votes.

Ray McNally, a Republican strategist in Sacramento, said talking up impeachment was an effective strategy for Democratic candidates to energize their political base. “It’s the red meat of politics,” he said. “You have people racing to be the most partisan.”

But more broadly, he said, impeachment chest-banging isn’t a good idea for the Democratic Party unless hard evidence emerges that Trump broke the law or his oath of office.

“Being an a–hole isn’t an impeachable offense,” he said. “Republicans went down this road with Bill Clinton, and it didn’t work out well for them — in the long run, it was disastrous.”

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