Is boring back? The California governor’s race and the fight for the future of the Democratic party

A massive field, no clear frontrunners and one big scandal have turned the high-stakes battle into a head-scratcher Xavier Becerra arrived at Dulan’s on Crenshaw grinning like a man who couldn’t believe his luck. Joining him at the south Los Angeles soul food restaurant on a Tuesday morning in the final stretch of a volatile primary contest to be California’s next governor was Jasmine Crockett, the firebrand Texas Democrat, who had flown in to endorse his campaign. “We had to go search for one of the best fighters in the world,” Becerra said of Crockett, as he addressed a crowd of Black community leaders and union workers gathered for a buffet breakfast, “and make sure she could come in and inspire us.” Supporters pressed closer, leaning over plates of eggs and grits with their phones raise, to record the congresswoman, as she urged Californians to choose “credentials” over “gimmicks” in the race to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom. There were murmurs of agreement, followed by loud cheering when Rex Richardson, the mayor of Long Beach, predicted that California was on the verge of a “Becerra era”. “I think the voters are waking up,” he said. For D