Withered California GOP has little hope in many races

GOP candidates, John Cox (left) for governor and Steve Bailey (middle) for attorney general have a press conference at the San Mateo Republican Party Headquarters on Thursday, May 24, 2018 in Burlingame, Calif. less GOP candidates, John Cox (left) for governor and Steve Bailey (middle) for attorney general have a press conference at the San Mateo Republican Party Headquarters on Thursday, May 24, 2018 in Burlingame, ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Withered California GOP has little hope in many races 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

Little known and underfinanced, down-ballot Republicans are struggling for visibility in a state where Democrats hold all the political clout.

It’s hard to run a winning campaign “when your opponents can spend a virtually unlimited amount of money,” said Republican Steven Bailey, a retired judge challenging appointed Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Nov. 6.

This isn’t a new problem. A Republican hasn’t been elected to statewide office in California since 2006, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected and Steve Poizner won the race for insurance commissioner.

While Schwarzenegger has long since returned to Hollywood, Poizner is back on the ballot, looking to win his old job back. Only this time he’s running as an independent, abandoning a party that now represents only about 25 percent of California’s 19 million registered voters, compared with independent voters at 27 percent and Democrats with 44 percent.

To put it in perspective, 34 percent of the state’s voters were Republicans in 2006, when Schwarzenegger and Poizner were elected.

“California has become such a one-party state that it’s killed the opportunity for Republicans to run down ballot,” said Tony Quinn, who formerly advised Republicans on redistricting. The GOP “has given up on down-ballot races.”

Four years ago, Republicans persuaded some high-powered candidates to run for down-ballot races, including then-Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin for state controller and public policy expert Paul Peterson for secretary of state. They all lost, and it wasn’t close.

This year, Republicans don’t even have a candidate in some of those races. Two Democrats, state Sen. Ed Hernandez of West Covina (Los Angeles County) and Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, are battling for lieutenant governor. Poizner is facing Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), and two Democrats, Assemblyman Tony Thurmond of Richmond and education executive Marshall Tuck, are running for the ostensibly nonpartisan job of state superintendent of public instruction.

Among this year’s down-ballot GOP candidates, only Greg Conlon, who is running for state treasurer after losing four years ago, has any partisan political experience. Bailey, controller candidate Konstantinos Roditis and Mark Meuser, who is running for secretary of state, are all making their first ventures into politics. Their finances reflect it.

As of Sept. 22, state campaign finance records showed that Roditis had $93,633 in the bank and that the other three Republicans reported $15,000 or less.

Meanwhile, Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla had about $500,000 cash on hand, and each of the Democrats in the other three races had $1.2 million or more.

GOP donors aren’t going to hand out campaign cash unless they see a chance of winning, and it’s not there this year, Quinn said.

In the attorney general’s race, Becerra is making the most of his advantages in both fundraising and visibility. Gov. Jerry Brown appointed the former Los Angeles congressman to replace Kamala Harris in 2017 after she was elected to the Senate.

Since then, he’s become one of the leaders of state Democrats’ opposition to President Trump, taking the federal government to court over Trump’s attempts to trim back environmental regulations, cut the Affordable Care Act, toughen immigration rules and make other changes that affect California.

“It’s not just dealing with the headwinds coming from Washington every day,” Becerra said. “People tell us they want the attorney general to keep their neighborhoods safe, to give them a sense of security.”

Becerra says he also wants to protect California jobs, the water and the environment and to toughen consumer privacy protection online, so people “can keep their private lives private.”

For Bailey, the attorney general’s job is to help “good people looking to live a fair and decent life in safety.” He wants to tighten laws that have trimmed sentences for some convicted criminals and says he will focus on fighting violent crime in the state.

That concern for criminals has come at the expense of many law-abiding citizens in the state, he said, pointing to his support from victims groups and law enforcement.

“San Francisco is the poster child for dysfunctional communities,” he said.

Bailey faces legal problems of his own. He appeared at a hearing before the Commission on Judicial Performance last month on charges that he used his status as a judge to boost his political career, which he denies. The commission has yet to rule on the charges.

Here’s a look at the other down-ballot contests:

Treasurer: The job opened up when the current treasurer, Democrat John Chiang, ran unsuccessfully for governor.

Democrat Fiona Ma is a former San Francisco supervisor and assemblywoman who now serves on the state Board of Equalization. An accountant, Ma touts her experience in the worlds of both finance and politics.

Greg Conlon, an Atherton resident, is former president of the state Public Utilities Commission and a onetime member of the California Transportation Commission. An attorney and accountant, he wants to focus on dealing with the state’s growing pension and retiree health care obligation.

Controller: Democrat Betty Yee, a native of San Francisco, was elected to the office in 2014 after serving on the Board of Equalization. She also served as a top state budget official under Gov. Gray Davis and says she has shown she can handle the state’s finances.

Konstantinos Roditis, an Orange County resident, says he would defund the high-speed rail project and push against increasing state taxes and fees.

Secretary of state: Alex Padilla, a former Los Angeles County state senator and onetime member of the Los Angeles City Council, is running for a second term. He has pushed to make voting easier by sponsoring a measure that would send mail ballots to every voter in the state.

Mark Meuser’s campaign is an attack on Padilla, arguing that the secretary of state has not been quick enough to clean up the voter rolls and deal with problems the Department of Motor Vehicles has had with the “motor voter” program, where people are automatically registered when they get a driver’s license or register a vehicle.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth