The Republican Party's best opportunity to capture California's governorship in two decades is imploding as its two leading candidates savage each other in an increasingly vicious primary battle that threatens to destroy their joint advantage.
According to the Los Angeles Times, under California's "jungle primary" rules, the top two vote-getters in the June primary advance to November regardless of party. Fox News personality Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco have been positioned to advance because Democrats failed to coalesce behind a single nominee.
But that advantage is rapidly disintegrating.
Bianco, the archetypal law-and-order GOP candidate initially seemed positioned to capitalize on his law enforcement credentials. "If we took the names and the party off of the ballot and simply went up with resume — we made you all read a resume of who you're going to put as your next governor — I would win this election 100% to nothing," Bianco confidently told a GOP women's group.
But his badge has offered no protection from Hilton's blistering attacks on Bianco's past statements about immigration, pandemic mask mandates, and Black Lives Matter protests — positions that are proving disqualifying for significant portions of GOP voters.
The two Republicans traded brutal personal attacks at their first one-on-one debate in Rancho Mirage. Hilton accused Bianco of "coddling illegal immigrants" and called him "wishy-washy." Bianco responded by labeling Hilton, a British immigrant himself, a "fraud" and "heartless" for denying others the same pathway to citizenship he received.
"What an outrageous and offensive insult that Chad just made to every legal immigrant in this state and in this country," Hilton fumed.
Hilton has adopted the attack line "shifty sheriff," a label that's resonating with some voters. One GOP voter, Agnes Gibboney, 71, of Rancho Cucamonga, voiced her frustration: "The man lies. The man is not honest about taking a knee to BLM, which is unacceptable. And coming up with three, four different excuses is unacceptable. And then to get mad at the voters for asking the question."
Bianco has countered by portraying Hilton as a shape-shifting opportunist, highlighting his past championing of climate change while advising British Prime Minister David Cameron and his expressed support for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 positions. Bianco has also circulated social media images of Hilton hugging California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"Steve is a fraud. He's a liar, and I'm not going to sit by and just let him do it anymore," Bianco declared after the Rancho Mirage debate. "When he starts attacking me, he starts attacking my deputies, my profession, I'm not gonna let it happen anymore."
The internal GOP warfare threatens the party's entire strategy. The California Republican Party is meeting this weekend in San Diego to decide on an endorsement, but neither candidate appears positioned to secure the required 60% vote threshold. Most polls show both Republicans as top contenders despite registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans nearly 2-to-1 statewide.
GOP voters are growing anxious about the primary bloodletting. "We don't want to split, right? That's a problem," said Jane Price, 77, of Sherman Oaks, a longtime GOP activist. "The state of California is at stake. We were thriving here in California. But now, it has been nothing but a downhill slide. We need people who appreciate what California is all about."
The party's fracturing is precisely what Democrats hoped for when they declined to consolidate behind a single candidate.