Republican Neel Kashkari was better financed than his opponent. Donnelly concedes in California

Republican Neel Kashkari has bested GOP firebrand Tim Donnelly for second place in California’s gubernatorial primary Tuesday, clearing the way for Kashkari to challenge Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown this fall.

Brown is expected to win reelection easily, but Donnelly’s exit is still a relief to establishment Republicans who feared his history of controversial positions and comments could hurt the GOP up and down the ballot in November.


The Associated Press called the race around 12:30 a.m. Pacific time, though Donnelly, a state assemblyman, had already conceded the race to Kashkari and broken the news to his supporters. With 77 percent of precincts reporting, Brown had won 55 percent, Kashkari 19 percent and Donnelly 15 percent.

( Full 2014 election results)

Prominent Republicans with California roots, such as Mitt Romney, Rep. Darrell Issa, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Gov. Pete Wilson stepped up for Kashkari, a former Treasury Department official, in recent weeks, with Romney even recording a robocall that went out the day before the primary.

Kashkari was better financed than Donnelly, giving $2 million to his own campaign and raising roughly another $2 million, compared to the $447,000 Donnelly raised this year. Kashkari also benefited from an independent-expenditure push by major California donor Charles Munger.

Donnelly led Kashkari in polls nearly until Election Day, with Kashkari only pulling ahead by five points in a final USC/Los Angeles Times poll conducted in late May.

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Donnelly’s strength concerned Republican strategists — not because Brown is a realistic target — but because they feared the Republican’s hard-line stance on immigration and personal baggage could damage other Republicans running in California this fall, as well as the party’s broader effort to rebrand itself nationally. Donnelly has been on probation for taking a loaded gun to an airport, for example, and he also accused Kashkari of embracing Sharia law.

“It is crap like this that gives Republicans a bad name, and there is no place in the Republican Party or in this race for someone like Tim Donnelly,” Issa said about Donnelly’s charge.

“Every time he goes out and says something, and as we’ve seen, Mr. Donnelly is quite prone to sharing the weird recesses and corners of his mind, it could be really problematic for the GOP,” strategist Karl Rove said.

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Donnelly defended himself as an insurgent looking to upset the status quo, saying: “I’m a threat to the country-club Republicans. I’m a danger because I might bring a little more country into the club.”

Kashkari’s biggest criticism from the right may now derive from his management of the Troubled Asset Relief Program while he served in the Treasury Department, since many conservatives are fierce critics of the bank bailout.

But it will be of little consequence if Brown steamrolls to reelection in the deep-blue state as expected. The USC/Los Angeles Times poll put him at 55 percent, versus Kashkari’s 27 percent.