Sixteen years ago, California voters passed Proposition 14, the “top-two” primary, with 54 percent of the vote. The theory was democratic moderation. The machine — both parties, initially — hated it.
Now that it threatens to produce two Republicans in the November gubernatorial runoff, Democrats have suddenly rediscovered the same objections Republicans had in 2010.
The rule was fine while it protected their monopoly. Now it’s a crisis.
I’ve watched this state from the inside since I got here in 1990. The California I arrived in rewarded builders, punished sloth, and ran a budget that at least pretended to add up.
What I’m watching now is a state that punishes productive behavior, rewards dependency, and does so with remarkable consistency.
Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco aren’t a fluke. They’re the bill coming due.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office puts California’s 2026–27 budget gap at nearly $18 billion, the fourth consecutive deficit year during a period of overall revenue growth, which is a remarkable policy achievement if your goal is going broke in a boom.
Sacramento’s answer hasn’t been to cut. Instead, the state expanded Medi-Cal to 1.6 million undocumented adults, watched the program overshoot projections by $2.7 billion, and then froze new enrollment as of Jan. 1, 2026, after the damage was done.
Meanwhile, California has spent $37 billion on housing and homelessness programs since 2019, and the tent cities are still there. Compassion without accountability isn’t compassion. It’s expensive theater.
Hilton is the more credible of the two Republican candidates because he’s already watched this script play out elsewhere. He served as director of strategy for British Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012, saw progressive governance corrode a country that should have known better, and then moved to California.
Source: VidNews » Feed
