Dem strategist: California Democrats should be worried that two white guys from San Francisco are at the top of the Dem ticket

Dem strategist Garry South says Democrats should be worried about the diversity problem at the top of the Dem ticket in California.

California GOP voters appeared poised to anoint their first-ever female candidate for governor, Meg Whitman – and perhaps their first-ever woman U.S. Senate nominee, too.


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed state Sen. Abel Maldonado as lieutenant governor, and Maldonado is running for the seat whether he’s confirmed by the Democratic Legislature or not. If he’s the Republican nominee, he would be the first GOP Latino running for the state’s second-highest post since Romualdo Pacheco in 1870.


In addition, women are likely to be the Republican nominees for treasurer and superintendent of public instruction, and an African American may get the nod for secretary of state – the first time a black will have ever run as a Republican nominee for statewide office.


And in response to this potentially unprecedented diversity at the top of the Republican ticket, we Democrats could end up with a ticket that consists at the top of … two white guys from San Francisco?


With San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s last-minute entry into the lieutenant governor’s race last week, state Sen. Dean Flores, who had been actively angling for the post for several years, dropped out. And since Attorney General Jerry Brown, also a San Francisco native, has the field all to himself in the governor’s race, the only possibility we have for diversity at the top of the ticket is Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who has been running hard for lieutenant governor since September.

Breaks my heart that the Dems are in this pickle.