加州政坛蓝调:州长、洛杉矶市长选举出现弱势民主党领跑者与崛起共和党候选人


2026-05-30T11:00:08.224Z / 美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)

美国最蓝的州之一的民主党执政状态将于周二迎来考验,加州选民将在州长和洛杉矶市长的初选中,审视由相对弱势或不受欢迎的领跑者领衔的多候选人竞选阵营。

前总统唐纳德·特朗普如今的选民支持率可能创下历史新低,但民主党正面临自身的政治困境:民调显示绝大多数选民不认可该党。一份漏洞百出的民主党全国委员会报告以及吉尔·拜登的图书巡回宣传活动,重新引发了关于民主党在2024年选举中失误的争论——这分散了民主党为在11月中期选举中赢得参众两院多数席位所做努力的注意力。

在加州,接替即将卸任州长加文·纽瑟姆的竞选与洛杉矶市长凯伦·巴斯的连任竞选存在一些共同态势。两场选举都出现了迄今未能脱颖而出的民主党候选人,以及指责这些民主党人履职不力的保守派候选人。

无家可归与毒品问题、住房与可负担性、犯罪率以及娱乐行业失业问题等类似议题主导了两场竞选,共和党候选人指出,完全掌控市和州政府的民主党辜负了选民。

“掌权者正是让这一切发生的人,”曾出演真人秀的明星斯宾塞·普拉特在接受CNN采访时说道,他正挑战巴斯的市长席位。“我要站出来说:‘够了,这些腐败政客拿走我们的税金,却让街头无家可归者越来越多,死亡事件频发。’”

在注册民主党人数量是共和党人约四倍的洛杉矶市,市长选举名义上无党派属性,普拉特也试图与党派标签划清界限。但他登记为共和党人,民主党人则试图将他与特朗普绑定,并强调他与亚历克斯·琼斯等颇具争议的保守派人士的联系。

普拉特是在自家房屋在去年的帕利塞兹山火中被烧毁后宣布参选的。他指责巴斯在火灾发生时身在加纳,对城市应急响应管理不善,并将此事作为根深蒂固的民主党领导层在毒品、犯罪和无家可归等一系列棘手问题上失败的例证。

洛杉矶市长候选人斯宾塞·普拉特称当前竞选与过往不同:我现在是个“截然不同”的人

11:05 • 消息来源:CNN

“这又不是什么复杂的科学难题,”普拉特说。“我之所以能获得支持,是因为我用常识告诉人们真相。这无关政治。”

加州采用丛林初选制度,所有候选人将出现在同一张选票上。得票前两名的候选人——无论党派归属——将晋级11月的大选。两场选举的民调都显示存在多种可能性。

民调显示,巴斯、普拉特以及从左翼向巴斯发起挑战的进步派市议员尼提亚·拉曼,在争夺十一月选票两个席位的竞争中势均力敌。5月19日至24日开展的加州大学伯克利分校-洛杉矶时报民调显示,巴斯支持率为26%,拉曼为25%,普拉特为22%。该民调还显示,57%的可能选民对巴斯持负面看法,这一比例与对普拉特持负面看法的比例相同。

州长竞选的潜在参选者阵营规模更大。但在民调结果以及两党加州战略家的谈话中,已形成共识:最有可能晋级大选的两位候选人是民主党人哈维尔·贝塞拉与共和党人史蒂夫·希尔顿,但最终结果远未确定。

5月14日至18日开展的公共政策研究所民调显示,贝塞拉支持率为23%,希尔顿为20%,紧随其后的三位候选人支持率均达到两位数:民主党亿万富翁活动家汤姆·斯泰尔15%,共和党河滨县警长查德·比安科13%,民主党联邦众议员凯蒂·波特12%。

不过,周五发布的另一项新民调显示,斯泰尔正在缩小与希尔顿的差距。加州大学伯克利分校IGS民调显示前三名支持率差距极小,贝塞拉25%,希尔顿21%,斯泰尔19%。该调查中比安科支持率为11%,其他候选人未达到两位数。

贝塞拉和巴斯都在凭借自身长期从政经验参选,而此时许多选民似乎正寻求变革。

民主党人此前一直担心出现希尔顿和比安科双双晋级的噩梦场景——两名共和党人将受益于民主党阵营的严重分裂,该阵营还包括获得硅谷数百万美元资金支持的圣何塞市长马特·马汉。此前的参选阵容中还包括前联邦众议员埃里克·斯沃韦尔,他于4月因性不当行为指控退选。

但特朗普在4月宣布背书希尔顿一事,可能已经终结了这种可能性。希尔顿曾担任英国首相戴维·卡梅伦的顾问,还是保守派政治评论员。公共政策研究所民调显示,该州共和党可能选民大多已团结在希尔顿身后:53%的人支持他,而比安科的支持率为33%。

在民主党可能选民中,贝塞拉以39%的微弱 plurality领先,斯泰尔为23%,波特为15%。无党派选民在前五名候选人中分布较为平均。

随着斯沃韦尔退选,以及斯泰尔尽管投入大量自掏腰包的广告费用却未能脱颖而出,贝塞拉在许多民主党人眼中已成为稳妥——或最不令人反感——的人选。他曾担任加州国会议员和州司法部长,还在前总统乔·拜登政府中担任卫生与公众服务部长。

不过,贝塞拉也不乏失误。

今年5月,他在接受当地记者采访前表示“会有一些尖锐问题,但不只是尖锐问题”,遭到了对手的嘲讽。

他宣扬自己在新冠疫情大流行期间的管理经验以及领导拥有8万名员工的机构的经历,辩称自己最有能力管理加州24.5万名州政府雇员。但拜登政府的一些前同事对他的能力提出了质疑。

曾在拜登政府中担任司法部发言人的资深民主党战略家佐奇特尔·伊诺霍萨5月在CNN节目中表示,贝塞拉“在政府中履职不力”。

“拜登政府里很多人都在谈论这件事,因为他们清楚他担任卫生与公众服务部长时并不称职。如果你去问任何一位内阁部长,他们都会这么说,”她说道。

在最近接受CNN的埃利克斯·迈克埃尔森采访时,贝塞拉表示自己“势头正盛”,而其他候选人则停滞不前。

贝塞拉并未提出脱离纽瑟姆和该州民主党领导层的政策。不过他表示,自己将更快地解决可负担性问题——特别是通过快速建设更多住房。

“我们会办成更多事,而且会快得多,因为危机已经迫在眉睫。需要有真正应对过危机的人,才能知道如何带领我们走出困境,”他说。

根据广告追踪机构AdImpact的数据,斯泰尔自掏腰包竞选,已在广告上花费1.95亿美元——远超其他所有候选人,占该竞选活动所有广告开支的64%。他的广告将自己塑造为无法被支持其他候选人(包括贝塞拉)的特殊利益集团收买的改革者。(贝塞拉在最近的一次采访中反驳称,斯泰尔正试图花钱买下州长职位。)

与此同时,希尔顿的竞选主题是反对该州的民主党领导层。在5月CNN主办的一场辩论中,他表示民主党州长候选人“不愿承担责任,所能谈论的只有特朗普”。

“我们需要改变,”他说。“在一党执政16年之后,我们需要一些新的思路。”

巴斯则在为自己将担任这座将举办2028年奥运会的城市的第二个任期辩护。尽管她承认自己的任期有时并不顺利,官僚主义壁垒拖慢了工作进度,但她仍宣扬无家可归者和凶杀案数量的减少。

这位前州议会议长和联邦众议员在最近接受埃利克斯·迈克埃尔森采访时表示,她的从政经验也让她与拉曼和普拉特拉开了差距。

“你不可能不具备深入的了解、长期的人脉以及与各级政府的合作,就运营美国第二大城市,”她说。

她的两位主要对手拉曼和普拉特在大选中将带来截然不同的挑战。

拉曼是民主社会主义者,将从左翼向巴斯发起挑战——这场竞选可能会让人联想到去年的纽约市长选举,当时佐赫兰·曼达尼击败了与民主党建制派联系更紧密的温和派候选人、前州长安德鲁·科莫赢得民主党提名。曼达尼随后又以独立候选人身份在大选中再次击败科莫。

普拉特坚称自己并非基于党派立场参选,他表达了对洛杉矶现状的强烈不满。他在社交媒体平台上频繁亮相,一名不为其竞选团队工作的支持普拉特的电影制作人制作了一段 viral 视频,将他塑造成蝙蝠侠,对抗被塑造成小丑的巴斯,洛杉矶居民向加州最知名的民主党人士投掷西红柿。普拉特已在社交媒体上分享了这段视频以及其他支持性视频。

普拉特坚称,解决洛杉矶长期存在的毒品、无家可归和犯罪问题很简单——关键在于更严格地执行现行法律。他表示,吸毒成瘾的无家可归者将被送往新的设施接受强制治疗和职业培训,该设施将部分由私人资金资助。(专家对其提案的成本和可行性提出了质疑。)

“人们去了那里,会说‘感谢上帝,幸好有斯宾塞’,”他说。“这将是美利坚合众国最棒的举措。每个人都应该效仿这个模式。”

不过,普拉特的选举潜力可能会受到限制:在这个绝大多数选民为民主党人的城市,他本人登记为共和党人。四年前,巴斯的竞选广告曾聚焦于当时的对手、亿万富翁开发商里克·卡鲁索的共和党背景。

“我不是政客。我不想当政客。我是为人民而战的人,”普拉特说。

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/20/politics/video/karen-bass-spencer-pratt-elex-michaelson-pkg-tsi
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/politics/video/spencer-pratt-ai-video-la-mayor-candidate-vrtc
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/21/politics/video/spencer-pratt-los-angeles-mayoral-candidate-pkg-tsi

California blues: Races for governor, Los Angeles mayor feature weak Democratic frontrunners and insurgent Republicans

2026-05-30T11:00:08.224Z / CNN

Democrats’ governance in one of the bluest states in America is being put to the test Tuesday, as California voters in primaries for governor and Los Angeles mayor weigh crowded fields led by relatively weak or unpopular frontrunners.

President Donald Trump may be less popular with voters now than he’s ever been. But Democrats are battling their own political problems: Polls show voters overwhelmingly disapprove of the party. A botched Democratic National Committee report and a Jill Biden book tour have reignited debates over the party’s mistakes in 2024 — distracting from efforts to win House and Senate majorities in this November’s midterm elections.

In California, the contest to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ reelection bid share some dynamics. Both feature Democrats who have so far failed to break out of the pack — as well as conservative candidates who accuse those Democrats of being bad at their jobs.

And similar issues — concerns over homelessness and drug use, housing and affordability, crime and entertainment industry job losses — have dominated both races, with Republican candidates arguing Democrats, who have full control of the city and state governments, have failed their voters.

“The people in charge — they’re the ones letting this happen,” Spencer Pratt, the former reality television star taking on Bass, said Thursday on CNN. “I’m the one who’s saying, ‘Enough of these corrupt politicians taking our tax money and then increasing homelessness and death on our streets.’”

In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about four-to-one, the mayor’s race is nominally nonpartisan, and Pratt has sought to distance himself from party labels. But he is a registered Republican, and Democrats have sought to lump him in with Trump and highlight his ties to controversial conservative figures like Alex Jones.

Pratt launched his campaign after his home burned down in last year’s Palisades fire. He blames Bass, who was in Ghana when the fire broke out, for mismanagement of the city’s response — and is casting it as emblematic of an entrenched Democratic establishment’s failures on a host of other intractable issues, including drug use, crime and homelessness.

LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt separates his current mission from his past: I’m a ‘very different’ person now
11:05 • Source: CNN

“It’s just not rocket science,” Pratt said. “The reason I have success is I’m telling people the truth with common sense. This isn’t political.”

California holds jungle primaries, with all candidates appearing on the same ballot. The top two vote-getters — regardless of party — advance to the general election. Polls show a wide range of possibilities in both races.

Surveys show Bass, Pratt and progressive city councilwoman Nithya Raman, who is taking Bass on from the left, are in a close race for the two spots on November’s ballot. A UC Berkeley-LA Times poll conducted May 19-24 found Bass at 26%, Raman at 25% and Pratt at 22%. The poll found that Bass was viewed unfavorably by 57% of likely voters — the same percentage that viewed Pratt unfavorably.

The governor’s race features a larger field of viable contenders. But in polls and conversations with California strategists in both parties, a consensus has formed that the two favorites to advance to the general election are Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton — but that the outcome is far from a certainty.

A PPIC poll conducted May 14-18 found Becerra with 23% support and Hilton with 20%, followed by three other candidates with double-digit support: Democratic billionaire activist Tom Steyer at 15%, Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 13% and Democratic US Rep. Katie Porter at 12%.

However, another new poll published Friday raised the prospect of Steyer closing on Hilton. The Berkeley IGS poll found a tightly bunched top three, with Becerra at 25%, Hilton at 21% and Steyer at 19%. Bianco is at 11% in that survey, and no other candidate reached double digits.

Becerra and Bass are both running in part on their long experience, at a moment when many voters appear to be looking for change.

Democrats long feared a potential nightmare scenario of Hilton and Bianco advancing — with the two Republicans benefitting from a much more fractured Democratic field that also includes moderate San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who was backed by millions of dollars in Silicon Valley spending. The field previously included former US Rep. Eric Swalwell prior to his dropping out in April amid sexual misconduct allegations.

But Trump’s decision to endorse Hilton, a former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron and conservative political commentator, in April might have ended that possibility. The PPIC poll found that Republican likely voters in the state have largely aligned behind Hilton: 53% support him, compared to 33% for Bianco.

Becerra has wrapped up a smaller 39% plurality among Democratic likely voters, compared to 23% for Steyer and 15% for Porter. Independents are closely divided between the top five candidates.

With Swalwell’s departure and Steyer failing to break through despite a barrage of self-funded ads, Becerra has emerged as the safe — or least-objectionable — pick in many Democrats’ eyes. He’s a former California congressman and state attorney general and was secretary of health and human services in former President Joe Biden’s administration.

However, Becerra has also had his share of stumbles.

He was mocked by rivals in May when he told a local reporter ahead of an interview that he expected “some tough questions, but not only tough questions.”

He has touted his experience managing the Covid-19 pandemic and leading an agency of 80,000 employees as he argues he is best positioned to manage California’s 245,000 state workers. But some former Biden Administration colleagues have called his competence into question.

Xochitl Hinojosa, a veteran Democratic strategist who was a Justice Department spokeswoman in Biden’s administration, said on CNN in May that Becerra “was not effective in government.”

“A lot of people in the Biden administration are talking about this because they realize he was not an effective HHS secretary. If you ask any Cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing,” she said.

In a recent interview with CNN’s Elex Michaelson, Becerra said he’s “got the momentum” while other candidates have stagnated.

Becerra isn’t offering a break from the policies of Newsom and the state’s Democratic leadership. However, he said, he’ll move faster to address the issue of affordability — particularly by quickly building more housing.

“We’ll get more things done, and we’ll get them done a lot faster, because the crisis is upon us. And it takes someone who’s actually had to deal with crises to know how to get us out of them,” he said.

Steyer is self-funding his campaign and has spent $195 million on advertising – vastly outpacing all other candidates and accounting for 64% of all ad spending in the race, according to AdImpact. His ads portray Steyer as a reformer who can’t be bought by special interests who are funding ads supporting other candidates, including Becerra. (Becerra shot back in a recent interview that Steyer is trying to buy the office of governor.)

Hilton, meanwhile, is campaigning against the state’s Democratic leadership. In a debate hosted by CNN in May, he said that the Democratic candidates for governor “won’t take responsibility, and all they can talk about is Trump.”

“We need to change,” he said. “We need some fresh thinking after 16 years of one-party rule.”

Bass is making the case for a second term in the city that will host the 2028 Olympics. And while she acknowledges her tenure has at times been bumpy and bureaucratic barriers have slowed her down, she touts reductions in homelessness and homicides.

The former state Assembly speaker and US House member said in a recent interview with CNN’s Elex Michaelson that her experience also separates her from Raman and Pratt.

“You cannot run the nation’s second-largest city without intimate knowledge, long-standing relationships, and collaboration on every level of government,” she said.

Her two main rivals, Pratt and Raman, would pose drastically different challenges in a general election.

Raman is a democratic socialist who would take Bass on from the left — a race that could evoke comparisons to last year’s New York mayoral election, when Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic nomination over a more moderate figure with deeper ties to the Democratic establishment, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani then again fended off Cuomo, this time running as an independent, in the general election.

Pratt — who insists he isn’t running on a partisan platform — is channeling a much more visceral anger with the way things are going in Los Angeles. He’s an ever-present figure across social media platforms and a pro-Pratt filmmaker who does not work for his campaign created a viral video portraying him as Batman, taking on Bass — portrayed as the Joker — with Los Angeles residents pelting the state’s most prominent Democratic figures with tomatoes. Pratt has shared that, and other supportive videos, on social media.

Pratt insists that fixing Los Angeles’ decades-old challenges with drug use, homelessness and crime is simple — and comes down to much more aggressively enforcing already-existing laws. He said homeless residents who are addicted to drugs would be taken to a new facility for mandatory treatment and workforce training and said the facility would be partially privately funded. (Experts have questioned the cost and feasibility of his proposals.)

“It’s going to be somewhere where people go, and they say, ‘Thank God for Spencer,’” he said. “This is the greatest thing in the United States of America. Everyone needs to copy this model.”

What could limit Pratt’s electoral upside, though, is the reality that he is a registered Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. Four years ago, Bass’ advertising focused on the Republican history of her rival in that election, billionaire developer Rick Caruso.

“I am not a politician. I don’t want to be a politician. I am a fighter for the people,” Pratt said.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/20/politics/video/karen-bass-spencer-pratt-elex-michaelson-pkg-tsi
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/politics/video/spencer-pratt-ai-video-la-mayor-candidate-vrtc
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/21/politics/video/spencer-pratt-los-angeles-mayoral-candidate-pkg-tsi

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